Santander

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.

Banco Santander posted a 41% annual surge in retail banking profits for the first quarter of this year, though its global wholesale banking profit fell by 6%.

Crown European Holdings was back in the euro high yield market on Monday with a €600m deal that will be used to repay its US parent company’s term loan ‘B’.

The initial public offering of Spanish diet products retailer Naturhouse garnered sufficient demand from investors to go ahead this week, but was priced at the bottom of the range.

BHP Billiton priced a €2bn three part bond on Wednesday, paying up on the longest tranche. Bankers said this reflected the recent underperformance of long dated bonds.

The initial public offering of Spanish diet products retailer Naturhouse has garnered sufficient demand from investors to go ahead, but will likely be priced near the bottom of the range.

Gas Natural opted for a drive-by execution for its second hybrid bond, a €500m perpetual non-call nine year, and won a €1.1bn book on Tuesday.