Santander

Danone, the French foods group, became the first European corporate bond issuer of 2015 on Wednesday, and attracted exceptionally strong demand for a €550m five year floating rate note and a €750m 10 year fixed rate bond.

Abbey National and Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel have opened up 2015's market for fixed rate senior unsecured bank bonds, offering investors longer tenors than the three floaters from other issuers also in the market today.

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority released the results of its latest round of stress tests this week, revealing that of the eight largest UK banks and building societies only the Co-operative Bank had ran afoul of its adverse scenario. Bankers and analysts have taken the results as a sign that the UK’s financial system is robust, though some have warned that future stress tests may become trickier to navigate.

UK based bio-pharmaceutical company Shire signed a $2.1bn loan last week. The five year loan has two one-year extension options and comprises multi-currency revolving and swingline facilities.

Gamesa, the Spanish wind turbine manufacturer, has signed a €750m syndicated revolver with a single bullet repayment in December 2019. The banks are the same as those on Gamesa’s loan signed in March, except for Bankia, which is no longer participating.

Medtronic grabbed the record for the biggest high grade corporate bond issue of 2014 this week, as investors returned from their Thanksgiving breaks keen to put cash to work in one of the busiest weeks of the year.

Bankers close to Chile’s international bond market comeback said that the quality of the order book and long-term diversification meant it was worth the sovereign paying as much as 30bp more to sell 10 year debt in euros than it did in US dollars.

Another rash of block trades appeared in the European market this evening, though not as many as yesterday’s seven. The crop of four deals was led by a trade of €350m in Belgian nappy maker Ontex, where private equity groups TPG and Goldman Sachs are selling down after its IPO in June.

Grupo Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) of Spain is in talks with a group of banks to refinance €2.2bn of debt, and plans to complete the deal in January 2015.

Chile entered the market on Wednesday with its debut euro trade. It is also expected to announce a long dollar 10 year at the US open, which investors say could be printed at a yield of lower than 3%.

The Spanish insurance company Mapfre is near to completion on a loan refinancing deal with 11 banks.

Burberry Group, the UK fashion house, has refinanced a £300m five year revolving credit facility.