Intesa Sanpaolo

French engineering consultancy Altran has set the term on its €750m rights issue to finance its acquisition of US global design and engineering company Aricent.

Intesa Sanpaolo was able to raise €1.25bn of senior funding at the long end of its maturity curve on Monday, despite being the first Italian bank to access the market following the result of the country’s recent general election.

Russian Copper Company has signed a $250m loan with a club of banks to refinance a previous facility.

The issues surrounding Italy’s debt burden refuse to go away, but not all market participants believe that a change of government on Sunday would be able to stall or reverse the country’s recent economic progress.

The case for investing in Italy’s banks is unlikely to be radically altered by the outcome of the country’s general election on Sunday, March 4, according to some FIG bond buyers.

Intesa Sanpaolo has overcome Japanese concerns about Italy to become the first ever Italian bank to sell a Tokyo Pro-Bond.

Intesa Sanpaolo is looking to become the first ever Italian bank to sell a deal in the Tokyo Pro-Bond format, less than two weeks away from a general election in Italy which has made some investors nervous.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) has signed a $3.5bn loan with 21 international banks, with one of those also selling over $2.3bn of MTNs for the issuer, showing that banks’ jitters about supporting Qatari entities in the wake of the dispute between the sultanate and six other Arab states have partly been assuaged. Bianca Boorer and Virginia Furness report.

Italian high speed train operator Italo pulled its IPO on Wednesday night, the day before the syndicate was due to release a price range, of €1.5bn to €1.6bn, in order to take a €1.98bn offer from New-York based private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners.

Qatar National Bank has signed a $3.5bn loan with 21 international banks, showing that banks' jitters about supporting Qatari entities in the wake of the dispute between the sultanate and six other Arab states have partly been assuaged.

Qatar National Bank is expected to increase its loan to around $3.25bn, after it received commitments exceeding its launch amount.

Equity investors have entered the New Year hungry for assets. Demand on deals has well exceeded initial volumes, leading to issuers increasing sale sizes.