Pre-migration untagged articles

With the big US banks having completed their reporting of 2011 numbers over the last week, a grim picture is emerging of the effect that the fourth quarter’s low client activity and weak market conditions had on investment banking operations.

Europe’s corporate bond market may not yet be in rude health, but it is certainly convalescing very nicely. CRH, the Irish building materials group rated Baa1/BBB+, has launched a €500m seven year bond on Wednesday and guidance has already tightened to 317bp-323bp over mid-swaps. That is the first public issue in a European currency by an Irish company for almost two years.

After the flying start to the year, issuance activity in the emerging market bond and global sukuk market is much quieter this week. Syndicate officials in London say the slowdown is due to the approaching Chinese new year and concerns about the absence of Asian investors, which led issuers to tap the market as early as possible.

The sovereign, supranational and agency markets have largely shrugged off the downgrades of European sovereigns and the EFSF by Standard & Poor's. After last week's heavy dealflow, a spate of new mandates from European credits this week shows that borrowers are still testing how far they can push issuance.

Alex von Sponeck, a managing director in emerging markets financing at Goldman Sachs, has decided to leave the firm, EuroWeek understands.

The SSA market has been enjoying a better start to the new year than many had prophesised but what happens next week will go a long way to defining the market’s fortunes for the rest of the year, especially after Friday’s bad news from Greece and France (see top story).

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for less than €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of less than 365 days

The Netherlands printed large chunks of commercial paper this week ahead of a large bond redemption.

Finland made a rare MTN appearance on Wednesday as moves in the euro/Swedish krona basis swap sent investors racing for Swedish kronor. KfW was another issuer of the currency.

RBS will slash its reliance on unsecured wholesale funding to around £75bn over the next three years as part of its restructuring, it revealed this week.