Pre-migration untagged articles

Greece paid a 30bp concession to outstanding GGBs for its new Eu8bn five year but as of Wednesday the deal had failed to perform as equity markets and general volatility took centre stage. Despite a book of around Eu25bn, bankers question whether it was sufficiently solid to support the Eu8bn size. Meanwhile Cyprus is paying mid-swaps plus 125bp for a new 10 year to be priced tomorrow.

KKR has agreed to buy Pets at Home from Bridgepoint, putting an end to a dual track process where the sponsor was exploring the possibility of an IPO as well as an outright sale. Debt backing the acquisition is likely to be 4.5 times Ebitda, but could go higher. Meanwhile private equity firms are circling cable operator Kabel Deutschland, which has also been exploring the possibility of an IPO. The buy-out could be worth Eu5bn.

Italian betting company Snai is looking to sell Eu300m-Eu400m of junk bonds this week to repay senior and junior financing facilities maturing in 2011 and to support expansion. The proposed seven year bond is likely to be priced between 9% and 9.5%, according to a banker away from the deal. Read EuroWeek this week for more details.

Books for the UK’s March 2040 inflation linked bond are well over £3bn as bookrunners Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Nomura and UBS go out with guidance of 2bp-4bp through the 2037 linker.

Trafigura is the latest commodities trader to tap the loan market, and is arranging a 364 day and three year $1.5bn revolver. Following ED&F Man’s revolver launched earlier in the month, Trafigura is refinancing a facility secured last year. More deals from commodities companies such as Stemcor and Mercuria are expected soon. To find out more about this deal and others this week, read EuroWeek this Friday.

Banco Santander priced a Eu1bn five year cédulas hipotecarias issue on Tuesday afternoon with orders only just matching the deal size after five-and-a-half hours of bookbuilding.

The Asian Development Bank issued the year’s first Kauri bond on Thursday, a NZ$225m ($160m) four year deal, but bankers said that it was unlikely to lead to a wave of issuance of the product.

The Covered Bond Investor Council this week urged issuers to end the recent practice of building shadow order books based on price whispers, sparking debate over a return to traditional bookbuilding methods.

Some corporate borrowers returned to the European commercial paper market this week but bankers still bemoaned the lack of issuers taking advantage of surplus demand.

Dexia Municipal Agency took advantage of a back-up in yields to sell a Eu1bn 12 year covered bond on Wednesday, its first issue of the year.