Santander

Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa has asked lenders to sign a new credit facility as its March 28 deadline to avoid bankruptcy looms ever closer, but an accord appears elusive.

After hiding in the shadows of private placement markets in January, BMW rose above the parapet with a dual tranche public bond on Monday, only to be hit by another sharp global sell-off. Yet the deal still got done, at a good size and with tight new issue premiums.

Santander UK has taken advantage of deep demand for short dated floating rate debt to print a €750m deal in the private market.

Swedbank and SEB this week launched deals that attracted the largest order books and the widest distribution of any covered bonds issued this year, along with the smallest concessions.

Argentina’s government reopened negotiations with holdout creditors on Monday after securing a $5bn loan from seven global banks last week.

Earnings at Santander matched market expectations, but analysts argued that fully provisioning losses on its Abengoa exposures would have taken the bank to a fourth quarter loss.

As Abengoa approaches its late March deadline to avoid bankruptcy, this week the Bank of Spain began a round of checks on creditor banks’ compulsory capital provisions.

Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm that handled Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, is set to deliver a scheme for Abengoa to avoid bankruptcy early next week. Bankers said the high yield market should cope whether the company survives or not.

Five issuers from core Europe priced covered bonds this week but the standout success, which could have been priced without the European Central Bank’s help, was the first Austrian deal of the year from Erste Bank.

A trio of Spanish issuers launched the first covered bonds of the year from southern Europe this week but, with peripheral spreads widening sharply, conditions are not conducive to further supply.

Glencore launched its refinancing of a one year $8.45bn loan today (Thursday), which is hotly anticipated although the margin is set to widen as the company's credit spreads have surged to record levels.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has brought its jumbo acquisition financing to the US corporate bond market on Wednesday, after days of speculation over when it would arrive. But that did not deter Telecom Italia and Mondelez from issuing in the European market.