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Any bankers who had written off December for corporate bond issuance were forced to eat their words today, when Vonovia, the German housing company, issued a €3bn deal to finance its hostile takeover bid for Deutsche Wohnen, and won a book of over €7bn.

KfW will add sustainability ratings to its criteria when selecting lead managers for its green bonds, the agency announced when releasing its funding plans for 2016.

African Development Bank brought in more than $600m of orders for a no-grow $500m December 2018 global green bond on Wednesday, a deal that bankers involved felt might not have worked as well without the socially responsible investment tag.

Deutsche Bank will not be a primary dealer for Belgium in 2016, after the country’s minister of finance, Johan Van Overtveldt did not reappoint the German bank in its updated list for 2016.

Cooper, the French pharmaceuticals distributor, has priced the term loan ‘B’ for its acquisition by Charterhouse at 475bp over Euribor, with an original issue discount of 99.5, the wide end of initial talk that began at 450bp.

Legal & General Investment Management, the UK asset manager, which has been involved on the fringes of the private placement market for some years, is making a concerted push to increase its activity, with the hire of a former banker at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Arrangers have not set a closing date for the $1bn loan for the Sultanate of Oman, on which pricing has been widened recently, but bankers hope to close the deal before year end.

Bondholders have approved the restructuring proposal for the City of Kiev 2016s and extended the deadline for approval of restructuring of its 2015 Eurobonds.

Earnings from capital market activities are expected to come under further pressure next year, as European banks struggle to make money in the new regulatory environment.

Commercial Bank of Qatar has signed its $1bn loan refinancing and increased the deal from $800m in syndication, but bankers said it was fortunate to have got the deal done in time before Middle Eastern loan margins rise.

Morgan Stanley’s extensive cuts in its fixed income division will not touch Global Capital Markets, the division which houses Morgan Stanley’s primary debt and equity underwriting businesses. Indeed, a source close to the bank said the GCM team had “never been busier”, and would turn in positive performance for the year.

Corporate bond bankers are busy, for this time of year. While they are usually up for doing deals, it is clear investors, too, are in no hurry to close their books for the year, but are keen to buy paper, despite the let-down of the European Central Bank’s lukewarm QE boost last week.