Switzerland

Private debt loans in brief Mercon brews sustainability loan Transocean digs into more revolver liquidity Munich’s public service arm switches to sustainable loan

Zuercher Kantonalbank added momentum in the Swiss franc market for sustainable bond issuance at the end of last week, when it launched its second green bond. The proceeds of this Sfr200m ($198m) trade are for refinancing existing and future facilities under its Umweltdarlehen (environmental loans) programme, which dates back to 1992.

Korea Railroad Corp turned west on Monday, marketing a six year bond to Swiss investors.

Vaduz-based Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) kicked off Swiss franc bond issuance after an investor lunch in Zurich on Monday with its debut Sfr150m seven year senior preferred.

In a week shortened by a public holiday, the only borrower to put its head over the parapet in the Swiss franc bond market was Pfandbriefzentrale der Schweizerischen Kantonalbank, the issuance vehicle owned by Switzerland’s 24 Cantonal banks.

In this round-up, former Bank of China chairman Chen Siqing has been moved to be chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.4% and the first batch of funds keen to invest in Shanghai tech board listing have received approval to do so

Eurex, the futures and options exchange, has pointed to low volatility and the upward trend for global share prices in its latest update on the derivatives market.

Raiffeisen Switzerland chalked up a notable first for Swiss francs on Monday when it priced the market’s inaugural sustainable bond. Endorsed by a second-party opinion from ISS-Oekom, the Sfr100m ($99m) five year issue was priced at mid-swaps plus 43bp, for a yield to maturity of 0.06%.

Shares in Stadler Rail, the Swiss maker of rolling stock, gained as much as 12.9% in trading on Friday after it priced its Sfr1.33bn IPO at a discount to its Swiss industrial peers.

Commerzbank analysts had been expecting a “very constructive market” in Swiss francs this week, bolstered by supportive cross-currency swaps and an uptick in the secondary market. It is questionable, however, if anybody foresaw the explosion of volume on Tuesday, when more than Sfr1bn ($997m) of new issuance had been priced by early afternoon.

Shares in Medacta Group, the Swiss maker of orthopaedic devices controlled by the Siccardi family, rose in the aftermarket on Thursday morning after a popular Sfr547m IPO that has been described as “textbook” by a banker at one of the global coordinators.

Medacta, the Swiss maker of orthopaedic devices, has covered its Sfr550m IPO within the revised price range on the penultimate day of the bookbuild, according to a banker involved in the deal.