Switzerland

UBS was looking to sell short-dated senior bonds in the dollar market on Monday, as banks began the week by selling defensive trades. But the pipeline is stocked with riskier deals in the run-up to the end of the year.

Valora, the Swiss convenience retailer, has raised Sfr172m through an equity capital raising to refinance its acquisition of German bakery group BackWerk and to grow its production capabilities.

Banks active in capital markets outside the European Union are using their exemption from the bloc’s onerous market abuse rules as a selling point to attract issuers, with the Swiss francs, Canadian dollars, and yen markets in particular focus.

Gunvor, the oil trading group headquartered in Switzerland, agreed a $1.39bn revolving credit facility (RCF) on Thursday to refinance tranches of previous loans.

Borrowers and investors marched on in the European leveraged finance markets this week, pricing €1.5bn of high yield bonds while bankers have been able to tighten terms on new loan deals during syndication. Deals pulled earlier in the week in the US are already a fading memory.

OP Mortgage Bank was set to price the first €1bn sized covered bond of the week on Wednesday and, despite offering hardly any new issue premium, the transaction found strong demand reflecting a popular but exceptionally rare tenor. At the same time, Switzerland's Valliant Bank issued its debut covered bond and Sparkasse Hannover issued a sub-benchmark Pfandbrief.

Swiss telecom group Salt Mobile printed a high yield fixed rate issue on Tuesday, its second deal this year, as it replaced floating rate notes with new bonds. They were priced at the wide end of guidance.

Borrowers repricing and refinancing their debt are taking an ever bigger share of overall issuance in European leveraged finance markets. This week, Salt Mobile and Gates added to the already large list of names taking advantage of borrower-friendly conditions.

In recent months Swiss food group Nestlé has extended its euro corporate bond curve with some of its largest ever deals, after it started a Sfr20bn share buy-back programme in July. However, on Thursday it printed its third Eurodollar deal of 2017.

In recent months Swiss food group Nestlé has extended its euro corporate bond curve with some of its largest ever deals after it started a Sfr20bn share buy-back in July. But the issuer has not forgotten its eurodollar investors and on Thursday printed its third deal of 2017 in the format.

Swiss franc bond investors have the opportunity to buy paper with a longer maturity on Wednesday, as telecoms company Swisscom launched a Sfr150m 16 year trade, but bankers say that despite the positive reception to the deal, longer dated primary issuance in the currency will remain rare.

Lonza, the Swiss medical firm, is sounding the market for a $100m seven year loan, following a €870m-equivalent Schuldschein transaction in August.