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Groupe SEB, the unrated French domestic appliances manufacturer, pulled in a €2.5bn order book for a €500m no-grow bond on Wednesday.

A trio of issuers from Finland and Sweden raised €3.5bn of funding in the covered bond market this week with strong receptions and limited spread concessions.

Abigail and Barney don’t sound like the most intimidating of names, but they were enough to send one MTN banker packing to sunnier climes.

With the market anticipating that the European Central Bank (ECB) will extend quantitative easing on December 3, issuers are heading further down the curve to offer investors an attractive level.

Avago Technologies, the US semiconductor components maker, has increased the €500m tranche of its term loan ‘B’ to €900m on strong demand, in another sign of the European leveraged loan market’s competitiveness.

Mondelez International, the US snacks group that owns Cadbury, satisfied its taste for long dated sterling debt on Tuesday, reaching far out along the curve to issue a £400m 20 year bond.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) issued a €1bn 10 year Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite (OBG) this week. The deal came with a 2.125% coupon, the highest of any covered bond sold this year.

AP Moeller-Maersk, the Danish shipping conglomerate, this week issued its first benchmark euro bond since issuing a profit warning in October. Investors were price sensitive, but bankers away from the a €600m seven year trade were impressed with the book size for such a challenging story.

Socar Trading, the marketing arm of Azeri state-owned oil firm Socar, has signed a $150m loan with eight banks, its first unsecured revolving credit facility.

Swiss franc issues from international borrowers have declined markedly in the last two weeks with syndicate bankers blaming basis swaps which have moved more deeply negative.

Another week, another couple of difficult Middle East deals for the CEEMEA market. Bahrain and International Bank of Qatar hit the sizes they wanted but found that pricing stuck stubbornly at initial price thoughts, with international investors beginning to close up shop for 2015.

Réseau de Transport d’Électricité issued a benchmark 10 year bond on Thursday that grew to €1bn, as a French-driven order book for the bond hit €3.5bn.