JP Morgan

Kuwait petrochemicals firm Equate has delayed signing $6bn of loans until next week because the firm’s board members are still waiting on approvals, said bankers.

The equity-linked market in Europe has been quiet since Total SA’s $1.2bn deal on November 25, but on Wednesday a very different deal was executed successfully by Basilea Pharmaceutica, a small and still unprofitable Swiss drug company.

Any bankers who had written off December for corporate bond issuance were forced to eat their words today, when Vonovia, the German housing company, issued a €3bn deal to finance its hostile takeover bid for Deutsche Wohnen, and won a book of over €7bn.

Cooper, the French pharmaceuticals distributor, has priced the term loan ‘B’ for its acquisition by Charterhouse at 475bp over Euribor, with an original issue discount of 99.5, the wide end of initial talk that began at 450bp.

Corporate bond bankers are busy, for this time of year. While they are usually up for doing deals, it is clear investors, too, are in no hurry to close their books for the year, but are keen to buy paper, despite the let-down of the European Central Bank’s lukewarm QE boost last week.

Latvia has provided the only point of CEEMEA new issue activity this week so far, though the sovereign is shifting out of the emerging market universe.

At this time of year, attention in the equity capital market is divided between avidly fighting for next year’s mandates, which are beginning to mount up — and counting the spoils from this year. Has it been a good, bad or indifferent year — and for whom?

Spreads on Chile’s sovereigns bonds tightened by 1bp across the curve on Tuesday as Latin America’s best rated country began a fixed income investor roadshow.

Goodyear Dunlop Tires, the US tyre manufacturer, is issuing €250m of eight year senior unsecured notes. A roadshow is scheduled for Wednesday in London.

Air Liquide and Saipem loans show that bankers and borrowers are not yet slowing down as they seek to tie up remaining bumper deals they launched in a busy fourth quarter.

Latvia on Tuesday sold €550m 0.5% December 2020s from a book of €1.6bn, in conjunction with a buyback of its old dollar debt, switching out some of its traditional EM investor base for new rates buyers.

Westpac was set to print its second foreign currency deal in as many days on Tuesday, but some bankers said the borrower ran into difficulties in euros.