Pre-migration untagged articles

CITIGROUP reported a $5.1bn loss for the first quarter of 2008 to follow the $9.8bn loss it reported in the last quarter of 2007.

Germany’s shadowy Schuldschein market reached a new prominence this week, as BMW raised Eu1.35bn of debt in what the lead managers said was the biggest ever such deal.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken avoided being knocked off course by the adverse headlines this week to price a new Eu1bn five year benchmark at 17bp over mid-swaps on Tuesday.

Portugal’s Millennium BCP launched and priced its long awaited covered bond yesterday (Thursday) and quickly attracted Eu2bn of demand for its Eu1bn two year deal at guidance of the 40bp area over mid-swaps.

The credit deafault market is back to trading in a pre-credit crunch pattern. The indices are suffering only thin liquidity and are narrowly range bound, but single name trading has enjoyed a burst of new popularity.

Enormous volumes of bonds from financial institutions in the US dollar market this week leant heavily upon swap spreads.

La Caixa yesterday (Thursday) attracted well over Eu1bn of orders for an innovative puttable three year cédulas hipotecarias issue, this year’s first public internationally targeted Spanish covered bond transaction of any size.

MTN dealers expressed frustration at the difficulty created for private placements by renewed interest in the public market this week.

Commercial paper investors showed a greater appetite for lower rated bank issuers this week. However, the market is very tiered for these names, and issuers are still being forced to adjust to huge basis swap volatility.

CREDIT Suisse became the latest in a string of banks to report first quarter losses due to significant writedowns.

Ahead of this week’s deterioration in sentiment in the covered bond market, Dexia Municipal Agency successfully priced its Eu1bn seven year public sector obligations foncières transaction last Friday (April 18), albeit at unfamiliar levels.

Søren Elbech, treasurer of the Inter-American Development Bank, and principal funding officer Laura Fan are convinced they do not need to issue special socially responsible bonds at the moment. The bank’s ordinary bonds, they tell EuroWeek’s Toby Fildes, should be virtuous enough for investors.