Santander

NordLB reopened a four year public sector backed Pfandbrief on Wednesday in a move which locked in exceptionally cheap funding. But because the deal was largely placed with captive German savings banks, it offered little clue about the state of demand for euro covered bond benchmarks.

While turbulence struck the euro market this week, issuers in sterling had an easier time of it with three companies putting together solid deals in the currency.

Chile reaffirmed its commitment to the European bond market on Tuesday with a dual-tranche issue designed to lure the country’s companies to fund themselves on the other side of the Atlantic.

BMW issued its first public sterling bond of the year on Tuesday, achieving an attractive arbitrage against euros for a long five year maturity, according to bankers away from the deal.

A project bond said to be only Spain's second ever was pre-placed this week, raising €184.5m to refinance a 49km stretch of the A66 motorway northwest of Madrid.

J Sainsbury, the UK supermarket chain, has refinanced a trolley of loans, removing covenants and securing the loans on its properties, after announcing its worst earnings for a decade last week.

Swiss cement maker Holcim is in a stand-off with its relationship banks over whether it can receive negative interest payments on its Swiss franc revolving credit facility, amid deeply negative interest rates, writes Elly Whittaker.

Votorantim Cimentos on Thursday morning opened books on the first international Brazilian deal since a Petrobras corruption scandal in November. But the euro denominated reopener struggled in a rotten primary market and was unable to move pricing.

This week’s sharp Bund sell-off has shone a revealing light on the European public sector bond market’s dwindling support and growing execution risk, writes Craig McGlashan.

Rating: Baa2/BBB/BBB

Dufry, the Swiss travel retail group, has closed the term loan stage of its bridge loan takeout. The facility is oversubscribed and likely to come at a large size.

Portugal is looking to take advantage of improving sentiment around Greece with a dual tap — but not every periphery issuer has been able to capitalise on events in Athens.