Santander

Durham University has raised £225m in a triple tranche US private placement, as competitive pricing and the range of available tenors lured the unrated credit to the private market.

The autumn term has definitely begun in Europe’s corporate bond market. BMW and Daimler, which launched deals last week, may have been the scholarship swots who returned extra-early, but this week the whole sweaty gang of issuers is back en masse, and making plenty of noise.

Banco Santander’s Chilean yesterday sold the first ever floating rate note in Chilean pesos, raising Ps75bn ($114m) in long three year notes.

With interest rates expected to rise, the ability to offer delayed funding on attractive terms is becoming more important for investors in sterling US private placements (PPs). Some are struggling to get into deals as they cannot compete with their rivals’ terms, writes Silas Brown.

Credit Suisse sold Sfr300m of perpetual non-call six year tier one capital bonds on Wednesday.

Citi’s head EMEA FIG DCM is leaving the bank and taking up a senior FIG role at Banco Santander.

UK real estate investment trust Segro has sold €300m 10 and 15 year US private placement (PP) notes, to a group of institutional investors.

WiZink Bank sold its buyout payment-in-kind (PIK) bonds in the euro high yield market this week, a rare opportunity for high yield investors given the slim volumes from the financial sector and Iberian issuers this year.

Rewables fund Tages Helios has taken out five credit lines totalling €452.5m from a syndicate of banks to refinance a portfolio of solar plants, as Italian names continue to win capital markets support despite some investors' distaste for the political direction of the country.

Spain’s Grupo Siro has signed a €240m loan with sustainable features, as green financing continues to make a path into the syndicated loan market.

Crédit Agricole said on Wednesday that it has reorganised the senior management of its corporate and investment bank, and hired Jacques Ripoll, former head of global banking and markets at Santander, as its new CIB chief executive.

UK retailer J Sainsbury’s has signed a £3.5bn loan package to back its acquisition of Walmart-owned Asda, with the company raising more debt than the cash component of the deal despite analysts raising concerns about the borrower’s recent debt levels.