NatWest Markets

Royal Bank of Scotland caught the market off guard on Friday by releasing early preliminary first half results that showed progress in its turnaround programme, but its recently gutted investment bank saw revenues fall and chief executive Ross McEwan warned of “significant” drags on capital generation to come.

The European Financial Stability Facility, fresh from hitting the bid for short-dated bonds with a one year early this month, went to the other extreme and set out with a debut 30 year on Tuesday. With blow-out deals at the extreme ends of the curve it is proving itself to be a savvy issuer.

The European Financial Stability Facility this week sold its first 30 year syndication — becoming the first supranational this year to go so far out the curve with a benchmark. Despite the deal not hitting the 2.5% yield target for real money investors there was an optically large concession to the curve and demand topped €6bn.

Royal Mail Group's debut €500m 10 year bond tightened as much as 15bp on Thursday after being priced on Wednesday at 108bp over mid-swaps. That was well inside initial price thoughts of 120bp-125bp.

Ross emerges on the buyside - SocGen hires DZ's MTN head - RBS's Anhamm heads back to ABN - Citi poaches MS bank analyst

Royal Mail Group's debut €500m ten year bond tightened as much as 15bp on Thursday after being priced on Wednesday at 108bp over mid-swaps. That was well inside initial price thoughts of 120bp-125bp.

Tata Steel is back in the market for a $5.6bn loan and with a dozen lenders already on the mandate, sentiment ahead of the launch into general syndication is upbeat. But lesser known Indian corporates should not be holding their breath if they are looking to emulate the deal’s success. Although the country is back in lenders' good books, loan market liquidity is still the preserve of only a few flagship names, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Financials dominated the US investment grade issuance calendar this week as investors refused to be put off by geopolitical risks.

Royal Mail Group priced its debut bond today with a €500m 10 year senior unsecured deal, nine months after its privatisation via IPO.

Indonesian telecommunications company Tower Bersama Group has sealed a loan of $300m dual currency loan, exercising the $100m greenshoe after the deal was oversubscribed.

UK firm Imperial Tobacco has signed a $13.19bn-equivalent loan to back its acquisition of brands including Winston and Maverick from Reynolds American.

Christoph Anhamm, RBS's head of covered bond origination, is leaving the bank to take up a broader position at ABN Amro, GlobalCapital understands. Tim Skeet is said to be taking over the position at RBS.