Banks

Barclays and Standard Chartered gave euro investors rare opportunities to build subordinated exposure to UK banks this week. The issuers were looking to benefit from strong market conditions during a more stable trading period for interest rates.

Sustainability-linked bonds with variable coupons are winning wide acceptance among investors, according to a survey by Natixis of 40 investment managers with $20tr of assets between them. Investors think they could be used by issuers of all kinds, want to see robust standards, and are open to structural innovations.

Europe’s high grade primary bond market was pumping out deals with double figure new issue concessions this week, though German real estate company Vonovia’s debut green deal showed that ESG demand is still strong enough that borrowers don’t have to offer extra.

Vienna Insurance Group was unable to build momentum in its 15 year bond syndication on Thursday as long dated US treasury yields climbed higher. The insurer was joined in the primary market by Santander, which paid a premium to launch its first callable non-preferred issue.

Despite the disruption that the coronavirus pandemic and, more recently, volatility in global markets have brought to emerging market debt, issuers in the CEEMEA region are not backing away from their pivot towards ESG financing. Though concerns about greenwashing are holding the market back, new sustainability-linked and transition structures are tempting issuers.

National Grid, the UK utility, is planning a loan-funded £7.8bn acquisition of the UK’s largest electricity distribution business from US firm PPL Corp. The deal could see £2.7bn of the utility’s assets sold to PPL.

Piraeus Bank is hoping to raise €600m of additional tier one capital as part of a set of actions aimed at strengthening its balance sheet. This week’s announcement comes a few months after the Greek lender had to convert €2bn of government-held contingent convertibles into equity.

German state-owned development bank Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) made a rare public green outing in the offshore renminbi market this week, raising Rmb1.25bn ($192m) from a deal that saw strong participation from green and ESG investors.

Crédit Agricole has sealed its third senior preferred Panda bond in the China market on a particularly challenging day that caused eight domestic deals to be postponed, amid lingering default concerns and rising government bond yields. Addison Gong reports.

Embracer Group, the Swedish video games developer, has placed Skr7.6bn ($900m) of new shares with investors to finance its ongoing growth.

JP Morgan has hired Mark Carlile as vice-chairman of mergers and acquisitions for its Australia and New Zealand franchise, according to an internal memo.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has had a stellar week, hosting two secondary listings worth about $6bn in total in quick succession. The latest out of the gate is Chinese video sharing and gaming platform Bilibili, which kicked off a potential $3bn float within hours of internet giant Baidu wrapping up its multi-billion-dollar deal. Jonathan Breen reports.