NordLB

A group of bondholders is threatening legal action against NordLB, claiming the German lender is acting in bad faith by trying to terminate its silent participation capital notes.

Svenska Handelsbanken has become the latest European bank to put out a call notice for one of its additional tier ones. Market participants are expecting a clean sweep of redemptions for the asset class this year.

Altitude Infrastructure, the French telecoms company, has signed a €266m credit facility, which it will use for two fibre optic networks.

The State of Brandenburg failed to reach full subscription for a new 25 year trade on Wednesday as it priced at an exceptionally tight level to its secondary curve.

The combination of Deutsche Hypo into NordLB has failed to cause much of a stir in the covered bond market as, even though the merged cover pools will be very different, spreads between their Pfandbrief curves have little room for manoeuvre.

Public sector borrowers wasted no time in getting back to business in the euro market in 2021 with one live deal and four mandates all hitting screens on Monday as issuers look to take advantage of an almost full trading week and a supportive market to make a dent in their brand new funding programmes.

Investors holding the covered bonds issued by NordLB in Luxembourg said on Wednesday that they were concerned about prospective rating downgrades after the bank said it would be wound down and in the wake of Fitch’s announcement on Tuesday that it had withdrawn its covered bond rating.

KfW mandated banks for a seven year euro benchmark on Monday, a deal which was already expected to arrive this week and could well be the German agency’s final public deal in the currency this year.

KfW could be set to hit screens with a euro benchmark next week in what may be its final public deal in the currency this year, according to bankers. The bond is likely to come with a seven year maturity, a tenor that the Free State of Saxony struggled with on Thursday, finishing with the book only around half covered.

Two public sector borrowers managed to get euro deals done in the primary market ahead of the European Central Bank’s governing council meeting on Thursday, with World Bank issuing its biggest ever bond in euros longer than 10 years and Hamburg comfortably crossing the line despite an embarrassing start to the execution process.

The City of Hamburg began taking indications of interest with initial price thoughts for a 30 year bond on Wednesday afternoon ahead of schedule after one of the leads accidentally sent out a message announcing the official opening of order books.

Ex-Barclays banker joins Finsbury to develop equity advisory — Laubjerg hired for natural resources at HSBC — Rousseau leaves Deutsche and joins Citi