Société Générale

Duration is for the second time this week the choice for a periphery eurozone sovereign, after Italy mandated banks for a 30 year benchmark on Wednesday. But there was more woe for Greece at the very short end, as yields on its 13 week bills rose by 25bp at auction.

Société Générale has added to its European loan sales team with a hire, the bank confirms.

A €5.5bn order book helped the Slovak Republic price its new 12 year euro bond in a record 2.5 hours on Tuesday morning. Strong credit fundamentals which led to a rally across Slovakia’s curve have enabled the borrower to price at its lowest ever yield for a long dated euro bond.

French chemical company Arkema has completed the long term financing of its acquisition of Bostik, with a €700m 10 year senior bond on Tuesday.

Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker, has revved up the year's loan market business with a €1bn facility signed last week, that the company said was three times oversubscribed.

The Slovak Republic has launched its new 12 year euro bond at 56bp over mid-swaps after a quick 2.5 hour execution process that began on Tuesday morning.

After the extraordinary fireworks of Santander’s €7.5bn block trade on Thursday January 8, the year’s more workaday business in European equity capital markets began in earnest on Monday, as five IPOs were launched.

Telecom Italia, Italy’s largest telecommunications operator, on Monday brought to the high yield market the first €1bn issue of the year, as part of a plan to repay slices of four other bonds.

Gecina, the French real estate investment trust, issued a €500m 10 year bond on Monday, attracting a vast order book and paying a small new issue premium.

German online hosting provider Host Europe will launch £535m-equivalent of leveraged loans this week, most likely on Monday afternoon, as part of its acquisition of Intergenia.

Eurofins Scientific, the French food and drugs testing company, has mandated three banks for an investor roadshow that could lead to a senior unsecured bond.

A week before the European Central Bank is expected to announce a programme of quantitative easing and Greece elects its next president, investors are loading up on senior unsecured paper from top names in FIG, and being paid big new issue premiums. Investors are demanding more in part because of fears of volatility in coming weeks stemming from the ECB and Greece, bankers said.