Banks

Europe’s corporate bond market was teeming with life again on Thursday after a brief pause for public holidays as German pharmaceutical company Bayer and UK energy company National Grid drummed up bulging order books in euros and sterling.

Invesco has sold the last of its stake in IP Group, the investment company focused on the commercialisation of university-developed intellectual property, through an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night.

The European Investment Bank received an order book close to two and half times bigger than its previous record in euros on Thursday as it printed its first benchmark in the currency of the year.

A holding company-level deal from KBC Group on Thursday became the latest in a slew of senior non-preferred and holding company bank issuance in euros this week, in what has been a slow start to the year by FIG market standards.

Amélie Darrort, co-head of the euro medium term note desk and head of French public sector debt capital markets at JP Morgan, will be relocating from London to Paris in the summer as part of a post-Brexit relocation, GlobalCapital understands.

Raiffeisen Schweiz kicked off its 2021 funding year with an opportunistic Swiss franc dual tranche bail-in bond on Wednesday, landing about 10bp tighter than where it debuted last October.

Lagardère, the French book publisher and travel retail company, has signed a €465m short term government-backed loan and extended its revolving credit facility, as the company shuffles its loan liabilities amid a plunge in revenue.

London-listed transport booking app Trainline has tapped the equity-linked market for the first time by issuing a £150m ($204m) convertible bond.

Diversification has taken hold in central Asia's Uzbekistan, which over the last two years has started its pivot towards international capital markets. According to sources, a plethora of debut deals is expected to hit markets in coming months.

Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab Holdings has added a dash of excitement to the loan market with plans to raise $750m from a new outing. Pan Yue reports.

Singapore-based Ivanhoe Capital listed a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) on the New York Stock Exchange this week, raising $240m after increasing the size of the float.

Crédit Agricole has named Victoria Land as its new head of sustainable banking for Asia Pacific.