Switzerland

VAT Vakuumventile launched on Thursday morning the bookbuild for its Zurich listing. The deal, Switzerland’s first IPO of the year, could give the vacuum valve maker a valuation of up to Sfr1.38bn ($1.4bn).

UBS has joined a growing list of European banks ramping up their senior holding company level issuance in 2016, printing a large three tranche deal in dollars as demand for the product surges.

Trafigura, the commodity trading company, cut the margin of its European loan in its latest refinancing to the lowest level since before the global financial crisis, but also received fewer commitments.

The Canton of Geneva has printed a 20 year bond with what bankers on and off the deal say is the lowest ever coupon at that tenor for a Swiss public sector issuer.

Gazprom has set the spread on its first post-sanctions Swiss franc bond, a short dated note that is offering plenty of juice to yield starved private bank investors, according to bankers.

UBS wasted no time in using the rally induced by more European Central Bank stimulus on Monday, launching the first additional tier one transaction since a sharp sell-off had some predicting the death of the product last month.

Russian gas company Gazprom is roadshowing a possible Swiss franc bond, which would be its first in the currency since the EU and US laid down sanctions on several Russian state-owned companies in 2014.

Bell, the Swiss meat producer, returned to the Swiss franc bond market with a Sfr300m nine year note on Tuesday, its first issue in the currency since 2013.

Santander Consumer Finance added to a run of FIG Swiss franc issuance this week, printing just its second bond in the currency.

The Eurodollar corporate bond market, in limbo for more than a year, coughed back into life today as Nestlé, its stalwart issuer, returned after a long absence for a modestly sized issue.

Santander Consumer Finance took advantage of relatively stable conditions in the Swiss franc market on Tuesday to print just its second bond in the currency.

UBS launched the first euro senior bank holding company bond of the year on Thursday, but bankers were divided over the trade’s pricing, as well as whether more could follow.