Société Générale

SGL Carbon, the German manufacturer of products from carbon, issued a successful €167m convertible bond on Wednesday morning, and launched the repurchase of an existing CB.

Covered bond issuers have front loaded this week, printing €5.5bn in just two days via seven deals.

Belgium on Wednesday printed the largest euro benchmark of 20 years or longer since the European Central Bank began a programme of public sector bond buying earlier this year.

Belgium is out with the longest dated deal from a sovereign, supranational or agency — outside the emerging markets — since February. And it is drawing a rip-roaring response which could encourage other issuers to look at the long end.

Belgium has mandated for the first fixed rate benchmark longer than 20 years in the sovereign, supranational and agency sector in euros since February, while an Austrian agency also found demand at the long end of the euro curve.

Société Générale has appointed Laurent Morel as head of debt capital markets for Asia Pacific, taking over from Yves Jacob who has relocated to Paris.

Barclays began marketing a multi-tranche Samurai trade on Monday, as some FIG bankers claimed European banks were still baulking at the new issue premiums being offered by US visitors to the euro market.

Commerzbank, Caisse Francaise de Financement Local (Caffil) and Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) invigorated the long end of the covered bond market this week with 10 year deals, a duration which had not been seen for over four months.

Shares in Abengoa, the troubled Spanish renewable energy company, plunged again on Thursday and its credit default swap spread widened sharply, on unconfirmed reports in the Spanish press that banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Société Générale had declined to underwrite its rights issue.

French hotel group Accor showed that demand is strong for even weaker investment grade credits on Thursday, drawing a rush of orders for a new eight year benchmark.

Two French borrowers took advantage of a resurgent corporate bond market on Wednesday, with electrical components manufacturer Schneider Electric and real estate company Icade selling euro debt.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel opened the euro tier two market for a long list of names, as bankers sit on a pipeline that some say contains more than 20 transactions.