Rabobank

Royal Schiphol, the Dutch airport, sold €1bn of debt on Thursday, as highly rated names continue to find solid support in the European corporate bond market.

Total Produce, the Irish fresh produce company, has signed $1.44bn of loans to finance its transatlantic merger with US fruit and vegetable producer Dole Food Company.

Demand for BPCE's latest Kangaroo note was skewed towards the preferred senior format this week, with non-preferred paper only making up A$125m ($96.0m) of the A$750m deal. The French firm was also joined in the market by Rabobank, which sold its first Aussie deal after an almost two year absence.

Rabobank sold the first euro additional tier one (AT1) bond in almost six weeks on Tuesday, landing the deal at a record low coupon in euros for the format.

Berlin Hyp has this week become the first financial institution to issue a sustainability-linked bond. Market participants were divided over whether the structure helped the issuer to achieve better deal terms, but the innovative trade will give other banks an important example to follow.

Four public sector borrowers sold intraday trades in the euro market on Monday with the European Financial Stability Facility making a dent in its second quarter funding and three other issuers receiving impressive demand for socially responsible deals under their updated frameworks.

BPCE and Rabobank are in the market for Aussie dollar senior paper, with bankers expecting a busy April as a slew of financial issuers refinance maturing bonds.

The short Easter week saw a timid showing of new high grade corporate issuance in the European market but investors snapped up the trades that were on screens.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market was populated with well rated issuers on Wednesday, as triple-B borrowers took a cautious approach and stayed away after the Easter weekend.

Italy and Portugal are the first two eurozone sovereigns out of the blocks for syndications following the Easter break, with the former looking to extend its curve by a further five years.

Loans still under moratoria may be at a particularly high risk of impairment, according to fresh data from the European Banking Authority this week. The figures also revealed signs of a more general deterioration in asset quality within the EU.

Athene Global Funding encountered slim demand on its return to the sterling market this week, but UBS had better luck at the short end of the maturity curve.