Europe

L-Bank is preparing to issue a floating rate note linked to €STR, the recommended new risk-free rate in euros which the European Central Bank will begin publishing on October 2.

The City of Gothenburg sold a new dual tranche green bond on Tuesday, raising a combined Skr1.8bn across fixed and floating rate tranches. The note was the first printed under its new updated green bond framework.

The Netherlands Development Finance Company debuted the first offshore Bolivian boliviano bond last Friday. Meanwhile on Monday, French agency Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations again returned to the ultra-long end to place a pair of callable euro notes.

A group of French semiconductor maker Soitec’s senior managers have sold €98m worth of shares that vested as part of a three year stock compensation scheme that matured earlier this year.

Sirius Minerals is in big trouble, and that means big losses ahead for the mainly retail investor base, who saw their shares dive 50% on Tuesday morning. Since the crisis, regulators have strained every nerve to keep complex, risky products out of retail hands — while retail investors have merrily piled into loss-making tech stocks and cryptocurrencies, and gambled on extractive industries. How much protection do they need?

Italian banks are taking advantage of excellent new issuance conditions, as investors re-establish their confidence in the country's new government. On Tuesday it was Banca Monte dei Paschi’s turn to do so with a euro-denominated preferred senior bond, one day after UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The public is increasingly conscious of environmental challenges facing the ocean economy, and the capital markets are taking note. Industries using the oceans are numerous and fragmented, making allocating money in a sustainable way challenging. But some routes are open for investors looking to improve activities involving plastics, shipping and fishing. Jasper Cox reports.

RCF, the Italian manufacturer of high performance audio equipment, is likely to launch an IPO imminently, potentially as early as next week, adding to what is expected to be a strong finish to 2019 for Italian equity capital markets.

CaixaBank launched a non-preferred senior bond linked to social causes on Tuesday, while Raiffeisen Bank International launched a green preferred senior bond. Both deals were heavily oversubscribed on a day that one banker described as 'ridiculously busy'.

Nationwide Building Society was more than six times subscribed on its return to the additional tier one (AT1) market on Tuesday, revealing the extent of investors’ appetite for the asset class.

Demand for euro covered bonds issued on Tuesday by Virgin Money, NN Bank and DZ Hyp has markedly improved from earlier this month, and lead managers have announced a further series of transactions from Royal Bank of Canada, SR Boligkreditt, Skipton Building Society and Liberbank.

Russian petrochemicals firm Sibur was able to print $500m of five year paper in its return to the bond market this week, brushing off news of a drone attack on Saudi oil infrastructure and a subsequent 10% jump in the oil price.