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Exeltium, the French electricity company consortium, has agreed a €1.4bn senior debt refinancing in the largest power project financing in France this year. The deal has a novel financing structure to negotiate better terms from creditors.

As the half year point of 2015 approaches, year to date CEEMEA volumes are at their lowest in six years. No bookrunner has escaped the plunge in volumes although a couple of institutions have managed to beat the odds and take a larger share of a shrinking CEEMEA market.

Dollar borrowers were forced to pay up to access the market amid continuing market volatility as they raced to take advantage of attractive funding costs ahead of the looming Fed meeting.

The Russian loan market lockdown has taken a surprise twist, with borrowers attempting to use the dearth of deals elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe to turn the screw against banks on pricing.

One of the biggest privatisations of recent years is set to begin in the coming months, quite possibly with an accelerated bookbuild, as George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, said the time was right for the UK government to begin selling its 79% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (Pbb), the specialist German bank nationalised in 2009, announced on Wednesday that it would float in Frankfurt in July, in a deal that one banker said could value it at close to €2bn.

Two Nordic firms, Norway’s Europris and Sweden’s Pandox, edged closer to listings on Monday morning, as they announced the beginnings of bookbuilding.

Grupo Antolin, the Spanish car interiors maker, on Wednesday sold €400m of notes at 5.125% to repay a $525m bridge loan that funded its purchase of Magna International's car interiors business.

Tokai Holdings Corp, a diversified, but small and localised Japanese company, launched its first convertible bond on Tuesday June 9, raising ¥10bn ($80m) from investors outside Japan.

Neopost, the French postal machinery maker that has used a wide variety of financing markets in recent years, issued its third convertible bond on Thursday June 11, in an unusual structure that will give it equity credit.

Middle East bankers say borrowers have stepped up their loan push before Ramadan, with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) launching $3bn and ENOC’s close imminent.

Service Industriels de Genève, a public sector mixed utility provider, returned to the Swiss franc market for the first time in more than 15 years on Thursday.