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When GlobalCapital surveyed leaders in the European equity markets as to which deal should be called the deal of the year, the answer was unequivocal. The rights issue for UniCredit was such an important deal and it went so well, that its ramifications are still being felt. It was an outstanding achievement in the face of difficult market conditions and set in play a widespread recovery in European equity capital markets.

German residential property company Grand City Properties brought its third corporate bond deal of 2018 to the market on Tuesday, while the return of seed company Syngenta with a jumbo multi-tranche deal neared.

To a casual observer, Citi's amazing year in the EMEA equity capital markets might seem to have come out of the blue. In 2017 they made a huge jump up the league tables in terms of deals, volumes and wallet share. But it wasn't just one of those years where everything went right for them. Rather it was the fruit of three or four years investment in the business. It had been a long time in the making

The EMEA IPO market came roaring back to life in 2017 after some tricky years. Banks and financials led the way, but as the economic recovery in the region accelerated, a huge array of other issuers came to market. It was a market where you could get deals done. UBS was bookrunner on seven of the top 10 largest IPOs of the year. UBS has a strong focus on the equity markets and with that focus, the quality to ensure successful transactions.

French shopping centre operator Unibail-Rodamco said in December it planned to sell around €2bn of bonds to refinance the bridge loan it has taken on to fund its $15.7bn acquisition of its Australian peer Westfield Corp. On Monday, it brought the deal to market and received reassuring demand.

German building materials company HeidelbergCement sold its first trade of 2018, replicating its last deal of 2017. It also priced the new deal at a spread close to that it paid in 2017.

Royal London Asset Management was the sole investor in £30m of bonds issued by the Church of England Pensions Board in early April.

DCM bankers have seen an evaporation of their Russian bond business this week reminiscent of 2014 when US and EU financial sanctions were first put in place against the country. Fears of further sanctions have meant that the whole Russian bond market is under scrutiny, and pressure.

A decent start to the week gave way to caution as escalating geopolitical concerns slammed the brakes on US high-grade dollar supply.

The investment grade corporate euro bond market had shown a steady return to strength after Easter. It was then tested by eight deals in two days, but showed it was capable of absorbing such volume, and tighter spreads may even be on the cards as French aerospace and defence company Thales achieved the lowest new issue premiums for a month.

Spanish civil engineering group ACS sold the first senior green bond by a corporate issuer for more than a month on Thursday, following a European roadshow earlier in the week. Green bonds are often said to offer a pricing benefit to issuers, but the company found it still had to pay a significant new issue premium.

French parking company Infra Park sold a new 10 year bond on Thursday to refinance calling a short dated bond and reimbursing a shareholder loan.