Barclays

The leveraged finance new issue pipeline has slowed down in Europe. Market participants pointed to weak macroeconomic data, but also the recent alarms about weak covenants.

Österreichische Kontrollbank will complete its benchmark funding for the year with a no-grow $1bn five year. Meanwhile, Erste Abwicklungsanstalt has lined up its second dollar deal of the year in the three year part of the curve.

The European Stability Mechanism’s second ever dollar benchmark scored an overall average of 6.83 on BondMarker, amid a general trend of lower scores from public sector borrowers.

Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV) Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group Co raised $150m from a tap on Thursday, getting ahead of potential supply expected from the sector next week.

Barclays announced this week that it is calling $2.65bn of retail preference shares. The bank said it is redeeming the instrument now, several years after the first call date, due to confidence in its capital position.

Consolis, the French concrete producer owned by Bain Capital, has abandoned its €135m IPO on Euronext Paris, blaming volatile markets.

Barclays’ breakneck pace of investment into its trading businesses has borne some fruit in the third quarter of this year, with a 19% increase in markets income to £1.16bn. But banking was softer, and the results do not yet allow the firm to dismiss demands from Edward Bramson, the activist investor, to shrink the investment bank.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development returned to the sterling market on Tuesday to sell the first benchmark of its 2019 funding programme.

Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación, a recently downgraded Spanish discount food retailer that issued a profits warning last week, saw its outstanding bonds fall further in the secondary market despite providing a glimmer of good news.

JP Morgan has risen to the top of Dealogic’s euro denominated SSA (excluding US agencies) bookrunner league table to keep it within touching distance of taking the reins from HSBC at the end of the year.

Investors were in defensive mode in the dollar market this week as they snapped up short dated trades and floating rate notes, with demand particularly heavy from central banks and official institutions. Bankers are hopeful that benchmark supply will return next week.

The Autonomous Community of Andalusia this week became the first Spanish region to return to the capital markets while still under the central government’s Regional Liquidity Fund.