Europe

Christopher White, global head of banks at Lloyds Banking Group, and Robert Ellison, his predecessor in that role, have founded Finance Unlocked, an online training company.

Activity in the green covered bond market is improving with Berlin Hyp (BHH) mandating leads for a green mortgage covered bond this week, just a few days after Société Générale issued its first green covered bond.

Toronto Dominion took advantage of strong demand on Monday to issue a $1.75bn three year covered bond, which was priced almost flat fair value.

DZ Hyp managed to build a substantial book in little time on Tuesday for its second 10 year Pfandbrief of the year, with demand fortunately swelled by an overnight rise in yields.

Italian banks have been in the spotlight recently and Mediobanca on Tuesday was the fifth bank to tap the euro market in the past two weeks, after UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca. It attracted demand of more than three times the deal’s size of €500m.

Eurotorg, the Belarusian food retailer, issued its debut Russian rouble bond last week, paving the way for the Belarusian government to follow suit.

Romania entered a crowded euro bond market on Tuesday, with 12 and 30 year papers. The deals may be among the last euro issues from the emerging markets before the summer lull.

UniCredit has sold the last of its stake in FinecoBank, its online brokerage business, for €1.1bn. This paves the way for chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier to present a new three year business plan to the markets in December.

Barclays’ ex-head of EMEA FIG syndicate John Wright has started a new job at Standard & Poor as financial institutions credit analyst.

UniCredit has hired for a range of posts in its financing and advisory team, including roles in infrastructure, high yield, debt origination and as head of the Asia Pacific region.

Corporate bond issuance in Europe has slowed, though demand remains strong, as evidenced by new issues on Monday for A2A, the Italian multi-utility, with a debut green bond, and Logicor, the warehouses group. Bankers expect appetite to remain steady but for the pace of issuance to be more sedate than in recent weeks.

Carsten Woehrn will lead JP Morgan’s financial sponsors group for M&A in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.