Europe

Confirmation that the European Central Bank was considering reviving its quantitative easing programme helped give the financial institutions bond market a small boost on Thursday, just as it was starting to show signs of flagging.

French renewable energy company Voltalia has finished its €376m rights issue after meeting with more than 100 investors on a deal roadshow, according to a source close to the transaction.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has opened a large number of whistleblowing cases related to behaviour and culture at investment banks, according to data obtained by GlobalCapital. This corresponds to a broader push by the regulator to look beyond traditional misconduct issues.

Deutsche Bank’s strategic overhaul looks set to maintain the bank’s leading position in debt capital markets and leveraged finance. But it casts doubts over Deutsche’s ability to retain a top tier corporate finance franchise and could signal the slow death of its equity capital markets franchise, writes David Rothnie.

UBS’s decision to create a global team dedicated to private capital markets is symptomatic of a shift in how companies finance themselves and time their IPOs. With vast pools of private capital available, companies are going public later in their lifecycles, leading to stretched valuations and fewer listed companies. Aidan Gregory reports.

MTN bankers were “happy” to hear that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is working on documentation for a Euro medium term note programme.

The pace of issuance looks set to slow down over the next few weeks, but a few opportunistic transactions could emerge given strong market conditions, bankers said on Thursday.

Commerzbank has decided to replace its retiring corporate clients head with Roland Boekhout, who works for ING — a bank that had been rumoured to be interested in buying the German firm.

National Bank of Greece showed market participants on Thursday that investors are still ravenous for higher beta products across peripheral Europe. Marketing a tier two bond, the bank attracted demand worth more than four times the final size of its €400m deal.

FinecoBank was more than nine times subscribed for its first ever sale of an additional tier one instrument on Thursday, despite pricing the deal at a level that was lower than what might have been expected for a similar offering from UniCredit, its former parent.

Germany’s Schuldschein market entered the second half of the year on strong form, after near-record issuance in the second quarter. But sharply tightening pricing in the bond market, which competes with it for deals, could yet scupper hopes for a record year.

BMW returned to the Panda bond market on Wednesday, raising Rmb3.5bn ($509m) from a privately-placed deal. The shortest tranche got plenty of demand from local investors, helped by flush short-term liquidity.