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Home Depot and Time Warner led a flurry of corporate borrowers on Thursday as the dollar market closed in on a record month for issuance.

Cinven announced on Thursday that it would buy Labco, the French medical diagnostics firm, the third time this year that a private equity firm has swept up a company that had failed to IPO, or where the flotation had found weak demand.

Santander UK is poised to issue its debut additional tier one transaction, a potentially crucial deal in a market without benchmark non-dollar supply in months, writes Tom Porter.

The Middle East loan market remains active despite a lull elsewhere in emerging market business, although one deal likely to be signed has been long in the works.

A change in US interest rate expectations could open up opportunities for SSAs at the long end of dollars next week, according to a head of DCM, although other bankers expect issuers to focus on shorter-dated paper.

Eli Lilly, the US pharmaceuticals company, made its euro bond debut on Tuesday, printing seven, 11 and 15 year notes and proving that the market is still open for longer dated paper — at a price.

Unilever, the UK-Dutch consumer goods company, highlighted growing demand for short dated bonds and FRNs on Wednesday, when it gathered a hefty order book at arguably no new issue premium for a three year floater.

KfW’s second Canadian dollar outing of the year enjoyed strong demand from international investors on Thursday.

Equity capital markets specialists watched wild trading in the shares and rights of Banca Monte dei Paschi this week, after the rights to subscribe for its capital increase began trading on Monday.

La Poste, France’s state postal service, returned to the bond market on Tuesday with its first benchmark issue since 2012. The bond was priced tightly to its curve, but the book size was not disclosed.

Penn Engineering, the US fasteners maker, has launched a $465m-equivalent repricing to cut margins on its dollar and euro loans by 50bp.

Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, the Italian coffee company, looks set to price its IPO at the bottom end of the price range. The last official message on the book came at 1.15pm London time on Thursday May 28, saying guidance was €11.60, the bottom of the original range.