Europe

Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg hit screens on Monday to sell a pair of green hybrid bonds, returning to the green bond market to follow up on its October 2018 debut.

Cobham, a UK aerospace and defence supplier, could soon change owners as private equity firm Advent plans to finance its £4bn acquisition with £2.517bn equivalent of interim loans. The latest public-to-private buyout is on shaky ground, jolted by a looming bidding war, possible regulatory intervention and reluctant shareholders.

The London Stock Exchange Group declared on Monday it is interested in buying market data and infrastructure firm Refinitiv for $27bn, a purchase that would give it added clout in data and analytics. Refinitiv’s bonds — notorious in the high yield market for their structure — and LSEG’s shares moved up on the news.

The European Central Bank’s openness to further cuts in interest rates after its meeting last week should be supportive for equity markets and should be beneficial for capital markets transactions after the summer, equity capital markets bankers believe.

Russia's largest producer of anthracite coal, Siberian Anthracite, is expected to complete a loan refinancing in September. The deal will see Sibanthracite switch its existing loan facility from dollars to euros, as bankers offer a number of reasons for the switch, including preventative protection from sanctions and the elimination of operational delays.

Banca Carige has plans to convert its tier two bonds into equity and raise €900m of fresh capital, as it looks to turn itself around and avoid the need for a bail-out from the Italian state.

Fraport, which operates Frankfurt airport and has stakes in several other airports, has entered the Schuldschein market for a second time this year, with an initial target of €200m.

Analysts at S&P Global Ratings fear that a lower for longer interest rate environment could turn bank profitability into a “more structural problem”, with the European Central Bank set to cut its policy rates further in the coming months.

The World Bank placed its first Hong Kong dollar deal of its 2019/2020 funding year last week. The supranational chose to link the private placement to the Hibor benchmark, a now little seen structure that was likely the result of a "very specific enquiry", according to one MTN banker away from the deal.

Investors poured orders into the only new issue on Friday, despite a softer backdrop in the corporate bond market. Repsol, a Spanish energy company, was more than six times subscribed for its €750m eight year note.

Indian mining billionaire Anil Agarwal has unwound the fiendishly complicated structure he used to amass a 20% stake in Anglo-American, becoming its largest shareholder in the process.

Richard Taylor is stepping down from his role at Barclays, after an eight year stint at its investment bank.