NatWest Markets

Transurban Group, the Melbourne-based toll roads group, brought its European roadshow last week to fruition on Monday with a €600m bond issue that was a bigger blowout than it could have dreamt of.

The heavy flow of European corporate bond issues that bankers have been predicting for September began in earnest today, showing that the market’s strength has been no idle boast. Investors swallowed five roadshowed deals in euros and sterling and Vodafone launched a two tranche issue without warning. All were gobbled down with ease.

Nyrstar, the Belgian mining and metals business, could price €350m of senior unsecured bonds today or tomorrow, having originally planned to issue on Friday 5 September.

UK building materials distributor Travis Perkins today set the final yield at 4.375% on its debut £250m seven year bond, just as the sterling bond market braced itself for the impact of a potential Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum.

For the first time this year the supply of covered bonds issued in currencies other than the euro led primary flows. Issuers in Australia, Canada and Norway launched benchmarks in dollars and sterling leaving euro issuance trailing.

The wave of acquisition financings kicked off this week as Marathon Petroleum exploited the recent sharp rally rates and caught investors in eager mood following the August lull.

Clemens Durkop, a vice president on Royal Bank of Scotland’s Swiss franc syndicate desk, has changed roles within the bank, leaving Switzerland to take up a sales position in Frankfurt.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has mandated five banks to arrange a series of fixed income meetings that is scheduled to kick off from September 8.

Hasan Mustafa, head of CEEMEA debt capital markets and risk solutions, is leaving Royal Bank of Scotland as it takes the axe to its emerging markets business.

British cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco has secured financing for its $7.1bn acquisition of brands from Reynolds American, and refinanced its existing revolving credit facilities.

Associated British Ports, which owns and operates 21 ports in England, Scotland and Wales, has refinanced the last of its batch of loans signed in 2011 with £400m of new revolving credit facilities.

Travis Perkins, the UK building materials supplier, plans to launch what is believed to be its first public bond, with a benchmark sterling deal rated BB+ by Standard & Poor’s.