Luxembourg

The European Investment Bank threw itself into a new type of sterling deal with aplomb, making a splash with a £1bn floater referencing the Sonia benchmark, in what bankers believe may become the new standard for the market.

The European Investment Bank has released initial price thoughts for a sterling benchmark floater referencing Sonia — a trade that dominated many conversations at this week's Euromoney Global Borrowers conference in London. The deal will be priced on Friday.

Bank of China (BOC) returned to the bond market with a Belt and Road blockbuster this week, raising around $3.2bn from a multi-tranche, multi-currency deal. Addison Gong reports.

Mireille Dyrberg, the former COO of Nex Group fintech subsidiary TriOptima, has joined data reconciliation firm Duco.

International investors will be getting a more transparent look at China’s domestic green bonds, following a new initiative from the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) and the Shanghai Clearing House.

Guarantors: Kingdom of Belgium (51%), Republic of France (46%) and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (3%)

The day after a jumbo corporate bond issue is often a quiet one for new issuance as investors digest their allocations and assess the impact on secondary spreads. But after Sanofi's €8bn offering on Wednesday, Thursday was another bumper day.

Swiss luxury goods company Richemont made its debut in the corporate bond market on Thursday with a jumbo triple tranche offering. And Goldman Sachs leapt in the league tables by solely running the €3.75bn deal.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) lifts restrictions on foreign investors seeking a majority stake in local securities firms, lawmakers consent to move to scrap the two-term presidential limit, and the Chinese commerce minister says the country will not fight a trade war with the US.

Prologis, the US-based warehouse Reit group, recently became the first issuer from its sector to issue a green bond, when it sold a €300m 10 year deal.

SGG Group, the corporate and investor services firm based in Luxembourg and owned by Astorg, will fund its acquisition of UK peer First Names in the leveraged loan market, which has already enjoyed its busiest January ever in EMEA.

NordLB attracted a strong order book and paid little new issue premium for its first dollar covered bond — also the first dollar covered bond of 2018 — a defensive three year dollar Reg S Lettres de Gage publiques.