Banks

Santander’s equity capital markets tie-up with Peel Hunt finally provides it with the entry into the UK that it has been seeking while giving the UK broker the firepower to compete with the biggest banks ahead of its planned listing, writes David Rothnie.

Berlin Hyp and HVB took advantage of strong market conditions this week to issue to highly successful Pfandbriefe.

Dutch agencies were active in core currency MTN markets earlier this week, including FMO, which sold its first currency-linked bond for almost a year.

Sucafina, a Swiss coffee company, and Suelzle Holding, a German steelmaker, have signed sustainability-linked loans, and bankers say there are more from the region coming to fruition.

Pfandbriefbank Schweizerischer Hypothekarinstitute priced its smallest deal in 18 months this week, attracting several international accounts to a tightly priced Sfr350m ($385.8m) note.

Federal Reserve economists have warned of ‘financial stability’ concerns around the US treatment of foreign banks, after publishing research suggesting that some institutions were hiding assets in branches to escape closer regulatory oversight.

Sucafina, a Swiss coffee company, has signed a $500m sustainability-linked borrowing base facility, as a small wave of deals from the German speaking region come to fruition.

Market participants expect to see the end of “vanilla” deals in the European bank bond market, as tier two debt becomes the latest asset class to embrace call periods over call dates.

China’s ABS market had a burst of supply this week, with five auto loan finance companies announcing or pricing deals in a bid to get ahead of possible tighter monetary conditions onshore. But the diverse nature of the originators meant competition was of little concern. Addison Gong reports.

China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) sold two tranches of five year bonds, one in dollars and the other in euros, to net more than $663m.

A pair of large block trades this week showed the depth of Hong Kong’s equity capital market, with more than $3bn raised by conglomerate China Evergrande Group and European food products company Danone. Jonathan Breen reports.

A group of nine issuers from Asia sold green or sustainability dollar bonds this week, propelling volumes to new highs. A large part of the debt business in the region is still focused on green and the environment, but there is growing urgency to pay more attention to governance standards. Morgan Davis reports.