Barclays

Barclays topped off a record-breaking quarter for its markets division by tapping the dollar market for $1.75bn this week, amid red-hot funding conditions underpinned by soothing words from US Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell.

The European Investment Bank and the Region of Madrid stood out in the public sector bond market this week, with the former achieving its biggest ever order book for a euro benchmark.

Hargreaves Lansdown fell in trading on Thursday after Stephen Lansdown, one of the co-founders of the UK retail investment platform, sold £160m of shares in the company via an accelerated bookbuild led by Barclays.

The high grade corporate primary market was receptive to issuance again on Wednesday, as syndicate bankers predicted this would bode well for what is expected to be a blockbuster May.

Barclays’ revenue from markets in the first quarter was its best ever, the bank said, but another large figure overshadowed this: credit provisions across the group came in at more than double the consensus estimate, on the basis of macroeconomic assumptions seen as conservative and a £300m hit from low oil prices.

Barclays saw its common equity tier one capital ratio fall 70bp amid balance sheet growth in the first quarter, but analysts suggest the bank should be able to maintain enough capital to carry on paying additional tier one coupons this year.

Banco Santander wasted no time in heading to the non-preferred senior market this week, with investors responding well to the way in which European banks have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in their first quarter results.

Any impression that the European corporate bond market was returning to more measured levels of activity was zapped on Tuesday, when five new issues were launched that had to squeeze more than €35bn of bids into just €6.25bn of paper.

The European Investment Bank achieved its biggest ever order book in euros on Tuesday, as it sold its first seven year benchmark of the year.

Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) has launched the first negative yielding covered bond since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in Europe, after linking the use of proceeds from the deal to fighting against the effects of the pandemic.

US companies Amphenol Technologies and Air Products and Chemicals have mandated banks for euro bond issues, as bankers expect Reverse Yankee issuance to rise after a spell of record-breaking volume in the dollar market.

Adani Electricity Mumbai has decided to close its debut offshore borrowing as a club deal with eight banks, bringing an end to long-running discussions about a possible syndication.