Barclays

With just over three weeks to go until Easter, the latest wave of IPOs in EMEA is progressing well. One deal was priced on Tuesday and bookbuilds have begun for two more.

Volkswagen has returned to the public straight bond markets in its own name for the first time since September 2015, when it was swept from the market by its emissions test cheating scandal. Bond markets being what they are, a multi-billion euro blowout is likely.

Lebanon took orders of nearly $18bn for its largest ever bond on Monday and quality international participation was seen in a book that remained dominated by local accounts, according to bankers on the deal.

The leads on Indian data analytics firm Mu Sigma’s $400m fundraising have invited lenders to join at the sub-underwriter level, according to bankers.

Chemours, the listed US chemicals firm spun out of DuPont in 2015, held a lender call on Monday afternoon for a $350m-equivalent euro term loan to repay some of its existing dollar loan.

Shares in Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, fell 2.7% on Monday morning after it published its 2016 annual report and launched its €8bn two-for-one rights issue.

Lebanon was on track to print a triple tranche bond at the long end of the curve on Monday, having announced price talk first thing.

Panmure Gordon confirmed last Friday that it had recommended a takeover by Atlas Merchant Capital and QInvest, as former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond hopes to build a “larger, successful boutique investment bank”, which will add M&A capabilities to its existing corporate finance products.

First Quantum Minerals raised $2.2bn for refinancing purposes on Thursday, in what was said to be the biggest corporate high yield bond issue from the CEEMEA region ever - though it was the same size as a VimpelCom deal in 2011.

Shares in Tullow Oil, the UK oil and gas drilling company, fell 16% on Friday morning after it announced plans for a £607m rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet after oil prices have rallied from their slump in 2015.

The sterling market was red hot this week with public sector issuers hitting screens in force, despite a headline heavy calendar.

Barclays has its tail up in the Americas, where its corporate finance business is in "better shape than ever" and it's ahead of the European pack. Now it has to square up to the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, writes David Rothnie.