Société Générale

Austria has printed €5bn in a dual tranche issuance, pricing in 10 and 30 year tenors as the sovereign took advantage of a window of opportunity arising from a rally in global equities.

Emmanuel Smiecench, former managing director on the sovereign, supranational and agency syndicate desk at Société Générale, has returned to the market.

More banks are expected to bring dual tranche trades in the coming days to get a jump start on 2016 funding, with issuers distrustful of primary market conditions.

Carnival Corporation, the US cruise ship operator, returned to the euro bond market for the second time in under four months with a €500m five year deal on Monday.

Austria is to print a 10 year benchmark as investor sentiment rebounded after a torrid time last week as BNG priced a seven year bond.

Multiple FIG bonds hit the primary market for the first time in a month on Monday as European bank stocks continued their rebound to ease the pressure on borrowers.

Belgian telecommunications company Telenet, which is owned by Liberty Global, has drawn on €1.2bn of loans to fund the €1.325bn acquisition of Belgian mobile operator, BASE.

It was hard to tell which was more worrying this week: the see-saw action in bank stocks, or the one-way tumble in additional tier one bonds. The only conclusion bankers and investors could offer is that, whether or not the industry is on the cusp of another meltdown, the issues of capital and funding are paramount once again. Graham Bippart and Tyler Davies report.

Royal Dutch Shell has cancelled its £10.07bn ($14.56bn) bridge loan, instead opting to pay for the cash element of its $82bn acquisition of BG Group with cash on balance sheet.

Natixis defied the grim tone of the markets in the fourth quarter of 2015 as its capital markets business reported an increase in revenues. The bank argues its results vindicate its progress towards an asset-light model, as the investment solutions business bumped up revenues.

Société Générale’s fourth quarter profits, released on Thursday, were up 19.5% on the year to €686m. But the profit bump could not overcome the market’s thirst for bank blood and its shares plummeted 13% on the open.

B&B Hotels, France’s third largest budget hotels group, closed the book for its €339m seven year term loan ‘B’ at a wide price this week, as the European leveraged loan market works through the last of the deals underwritten in 2015.