Morgan Stanley

Royal Bank of Scotland completed its final sale of UK insurer Direct Line on Wednesday night, with bankers hailing a smoothly executed deal that was priced with no discount on a morning of otherwise terrible news for the Scottish lender.

Rabobank has appointed its global head of professional products, who has previously served on boards at Morgan Stanley and NIBC, to its executive board.

Norwegian insurer Gjensidige sold an Nkr3.3bn ($540m) stake in domestic peer Storebrand on Tuesday night, launching the well-flagged deal with full coverage after a sale of another of its financial holdings stumbled earlier in the month.

The coming weeks represent an opportunity for sovereign, supranational and agency issuers to price aggressive deals as investors pockets bulge even after the traditional rush of issuance in the first few weeks of the year. Bankers in the sector are egging on issuers to bring deals to take advantage of the demand.

Germany's HeidelbergCement has slashed the margin it pays for syndicated loans, signing a new €3bn five year refinancing loan with an out of the box margin of 95bp, a 30bp reduction on the debt it is repaying.

IFC Development could make its first appearance in euros this week, with bankers expecting the borrower to launch a three year deal following a successful roadshow in Europe.

The recent decline of renminbi against the U.S. dollar could see holders of target redemption forwards lose money and lead to the unwinding of some trades.

Agile Property Holdings' debut offshore renminbi bond put in a strong performance, with an order book of more than Rmb5bn ($820m), despite investors in the dim sum market becoming more discerning. The borrower also managed to save 125bp compared to its dollar funding levels.

Suez Environnement raised €350m through a convertible bond on Monday, with investors leaping on the now rare opportunity to buy an investment grade equity-linked deal.

China Aluminium International Engineering (Chalieco) priced its debut international bond on Friday, issuing a senior perpetual non call three bond that pays 6.875%. The borrower opted for a non call three structure to save costs but this also made the bond more investor friendly which meant it was able to cut 37.5bp off initial pricing.

Chinese genomics company BGI plans a $400m IPO before the end of the year and Malaysian Icon Offshore mandates three banks for $137m debut in the first half.

AIA Group is meeting investors in the US this week for what would be the issuer’s second dollar bond.