Europe

James Gifford, who was founding executive director of the UN Principles for Responsible Investing, has joined Credit Suisse in the newly formed position of head of impact advisory.

The Swedish National Debt Office, the Riksgalden, has said that it is assessing whether to issue 100 year bonds as it looks to take advantage of ultra low rates. However, the demand for such products has deteriorated in recent weeks as the seismic rally in government bonds continues to suppress yields, according to public sector debt capital bankers.

Two CEEMEA issuers — one of which is a Russian corporate — have mandated for bonds and are heading off on roadshows, ending a barren summer for the asset class.

Mark Burgess is taking a career break from his role as chief investment officer (CIO) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Columbia Threadneedle. Global head of equities William Davies will take over.

Global banks have been stepping up their pitches to win the mandate for oil giant Saudi Aramco's $100bn IPO during the second week of meetings, as competition heated up to win a spot on the on-again, off-again blockbuster sale.

Westpac placed just under HK$13.4bn into the Hong Kong market across two MTNs last week — the pair of bonds are its largest ever in the currency, according to Dealogic. The notes came in a busy week for niche issuance, and bankers have posited that this move into the peripheral markets comes as a response to the global fall in yields.

Crédit Agricole CIB has appointed Pierre-Francois Martineau as a managing director in the bank’s new leveraged and telecom finance group (LTFG) in Paris.

The European IPO market has been reopened with the listings of TeamViewer, the German remote access software provider, and Swedish private equity house EQT. However, with investors continuing to position more defensively bankers expect valuation pressure to remain.

BMO Capital Markets’ SSA banker Lindsay Wortzman is transferring to Toronto, and to replace her the London team have picked up Samantha Cook from Nomura.

Russian companies are showing more interest in euro-denominated loans, as funding in the currency becomes cheaper and as US sanctions complicate borrowers’ access to dollars. Siberian Anthracite is expected to close a loan refinancing with a new euro tranche this week, and at least two Russian borrowers are in preliminary discussions with international lenders.

Two near-investment grade industrials made a splash in the high yield bond market on Monday, with both Smurfit Kappa and Thyssenkrupp getting their order books oversubscribed multiple times.

Continental, the German car parts company, is still committed to its plan to spin off its powertrain division, despite postponing the IPO earlier this year due to volatility caused by the escalating trade war between the US and China.