Natixis

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the French luxury goods group, and Comcast, the US telecommunications company, brought the European corporate bond market's two biggest multi-tranche issues of the year on Wednesday, each hitting sterling and euros, and blasting aside fears among some players of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. LVMH raised a whopping €9.33bn, Comcast €4.6bn.

The European Investment Bank and the Province of Quebec were well subscribed as they re-opened the dollar SSA market following the extended Lunar New Year holiday. Two more public sector borrowers will follow with dollar bonds on Wednesday, ahead of what is expected to be a busy month in the currency.

Atos has sold most of its remaining shares in Wordline, the French payments company, via an accelerated bookbuild.

Investors embraced a rare offering of non-preferred senior notes from Bankinter this week, with the Spanish issuer making its debut in the green bond market.

Banco Santander included a small premium in the pricing for its latest non-preferred senior bond this week, as the bank looked ahead to a busy year for issuance in the asset class.

Midea removed from MSCI indices — Natixis' asset management arm makes senior China hire — ICBC Asia hires two loans bankers from Hang Seng – Nomura hires Asia M&A joint head

Thales, the French defence company, sold a €500m bond on Wednesday that appears to have been priced with no new issue premium, or even at a fraction inside its curve, in a corporate bond market heavily weighted in borrowers’ favour.

Investors flocked to a rare offering of restricted tier one (RT1) capital from Phoenix Group Holdings this week, allowing the insurance company to tighten pricing by 37.5bp. The bonds will form part of the financing for the UK firm’s acquisition of ReAssure Group from Swiss Re.

Natixis Investment Managers has hired a head of China in its Beijing office from US rival JP Morgan.

French TV production group Banijay launched on Tuesday a $2.373bn-equivalent financing package, consisting of secured and unsecured bonds, a term loan and a revolver, to pay for its takeover of Endemol Shine, a Disney- and Apollo-backed Dutch production company.

Eni, the Italian oil and gas company, raised €1bn with a bond issue on Thursday, while Quadient, the unrated French postal systems company formerly known as Neopost, continued the run of more esoteric corporate bond issuance.

The overwhelming supply of international bonds from Asia continued on Tuesday, as issuers dashed to raise dollars, and in one case, sterling. But not every borrower was able to cross the finish line.