Pre-migration untagged articles

Rating: Ba3/BB-

Eurofima will price its largest dollar bond at issue today (Friday), a $1bn 10 year led jointly by Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs.

In these columns, we have criticised the failure of some major Euromarket houses to expand into commodities and energy trading. Why did we have a bee in our bonnet about a business that many investment banks wouldn't touch without surgical gloves, even 10 years ago?

Issuance dried up in the European corporate bond market this week as the end of the first quarter and the Easter break beckoned. However, with several acquisitions to be financed, the sector is expecting a busy post-holiday period.

What is wrong with Citigroup, the world's largest bank by market value? Ever since Sandy Weill relinquished the title of chief executive, Citigroup has seemed more egg-bound than Paul Newman in those memorable scenes from Cool Hand Luke.

With only a few benchmark bonds priced this week, there is still hope that a number of deals will get done before the long Easter weekend.

Medium term dollar swap spreads gapped wider in the second half of the week after the 15th consecutive increase to the overnight fed funds rate.

The European Investment Bank this week issued its first five year Earn since 2003 and achieved an oversubscribed book despite aggressive pricing and poor market conditions.

Barclays Capital was back in action printing Swiss franc MTNs this week, with a Sfr349.1m (Eu222m) two year FRN for Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), which pays a coupon of three month Swiss franc Libor minus 7.1bp.

German pharmaceuticals company Bayer lit up the European convertible bond market on Wednesday by issuing the largest deal for three years, a Eu2bn issue to part-refinance its Eu16.3bn agreed acquisition of German rival Schering.