Pre-migration untagged articles

Another Sfr405m slipped out of the door this week as UBS was forced to restate its 2008 results.

TriOptima, the trade compression firm, eliminated $3.6tr of notional principal for the dollar denominated swap market in one termination cycle last Friday (May 15). Added to the $3.3tr eliminated in February, $6.9tr has been torn up in 2009.

Sales of commercial paper to the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility shot up to their highest weekly level since early March this week. During the week ending May 21 2009, the fund bought £394m of corporate CP, up from £174m the previous week, the bank said. It is the highest weekly total since the week ending March 12 — when the facility bought £561m — and the third highest weekly total since the fund was launched in mid-February. It is likely that most of the issuance is due to rolling maturities, as the fund passed the three month mark last week, and it purchases paper with a three month maturity. Nonetheless, the total held by the facility climbed from £2.209bn last week to £2.24bn this week.

VTB Capital has made its debut placement in the European commercial paper market completing a $100m six month ticket for Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond company. It said it plans to do more CP deals and also enter the EMTN market.

Spanish covered bonds are faced with the threat of a wave of downgrades, after Moody’s on Wednesday placed on review for possible downgrade the Aaa ratings of seven cédulas hipotecarias programmes, four cédulas territoriales programmes and 57 series of multi-cédulas.

Swiss franc deals attracted more demand than expected this week, managing to overcome paltry returns at the short end and the impending holiday on Thursday.

Eurohypo on Monday priced the largest benchmark of the year, a Eu1.75bn seven year mortgage Pfandbrief, helped by a quick start out of the blocks on Monday when Dexia Municipal Agency and ING were also in the market.

Speculation surrounding the fate of Porsche and its tie-up with Volkswagen is weighing on the company’s chances of success in the loan market, as hopes that Porsche can raise the full Eu2.5bn it is seeking begin to dim. Meanwhile, another fraught German takeover story, involving Continental and Schaeffler, looks set for a new twist. Conti is now contemplating taking over debt-laden Schaeffler, the company which attempted the reverse last year. Find out in EuroWeek on Friday what implications both situations have for the loan market, and what bankers make of the transactions.

Monday was the busiest day for the jumbo covered bond market in over a year, with three issuers launching new benchmarks, including Dexia Municipal Agency, the public sector issuer that had to be rescued by the Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments in September. And Banques Populaires on Tuesday priced a five year jumbo, taking the number of new benchmarks to have been launched since the beginning of last week to nine, surpassing the eight that were issued in the first four months of the year. Read EuroWeek to find out how this week’s deals fared.

Unguaranteed and covered bond issuance is the only game in town in this shortened week as issuers and investors grow ever more confident. Appetite remains strong as shown by Barclays Bank, DnB NOR, SEB and National Australia Bank, and this was the first week without any government guaranteed deals since issuance of the product began. Where does the market go from here? Read EuroWeek on Friday.

A $732m convertible bond by AngloGold Ashanti and the Eu181.5m deal from Infineon have pushed equity-linked issuance in Europe to $8bn this year. Recent deals have proved that the market is a viable funding option for non-investment grade issuers, and bankers expect many more to follow. Which issuers are in the frame? Read EuroWeek on Friday.

A Eu65m list of offers wanted in competition (OWIC) was circulated in the secondary loans market on Tuesday. OWICs have been rare this year compared to lists of bids wanted in competition (BWIC) as market participants have rather sought to offload positions. Is the OWIC a signal that buyers think the recent uptick in loans pricing is here to stay, or merely a pricing exercise? Read Euroweek this week to find out how the OWIC fared.