Europe

The Republic of Serbia’s first international bond in six years — a euro 10 year deal — has drawn a healthy book of over €4.5bn.

Santander Consumer Finance breezed through the market with a new five year senior bond on Wednesday, as FIG bankers predicted that there would be a pause for breath in the primary market after a frantic few weeks for new issuance.

Central bank utterances this week, including a keynote speech by Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, on Tuesday and a Federal Open Market Committee meeting due on Wednesday, have done little to deter corporate bond issuance in Europe this week — in fact, they appear to have encouraged it.

Investors looking for some extra returns in the financial institutions bond market after an impressive rally this year have started seeing value in additional tier ones with low reset spreads, despite the risk that the bonds will not be called at the first opportunity.

VTB Capital has changed the date of its Russia Calling! conference, highlighting “mounting pressure from clients’ in-laws” as the reason for moving the event so that it doesn't clash with Thanksgiving in the US.

Equity investors have poured cold water on the notion that a US Federal Reserve interest rate cut this year would be enough to offset the damage to capital markets that a prolonged trade stand-off between the US and China would cause.

Capital markets veteran, Charlie Berman, has founded a new company which aims to get in on the digital disruption taking place in capital markets.

The EU executive has opted not to take any decision on a possible extension of the equivalence status granted to the Swiss stock exchange SIX, which ends at the end of June.

Investors hoovered up two German hybrid capital issues on Tuesday, in a receptive market spurred on by dovish comments from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi. They were of very different stripes: a €1.5bn dual tranche issue from Merck, the pharmaceutical company, which was about 7.5 times covered, and a £400m issue from Aroundtown, the property company.

Four major announcements have been made today by the European Commission and its Technical Expert Group, which is drafting the substance of several parts of its multi-faceted Sustainable Finance Action Plan. There were new texts on the Taxonomy, Green Bond Standard and Low Carbon Benchmarks regulations as well as guidelines for companies on how to report climate change-related information. Many market participants welcomed them.

Shares in Tikehau Capital, the French alternative investment manager, rose almost 6% this week after the company launched a well-flagged €1bn capital raise to finance growth.

UniCredit made the unusual decision of adding a one year call option to a preferred senior bond on Tuesday, nodding towards the bond’s potential value as total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC). The Italian bank won strong support on a day when dovish central bank comments were fuelling a big rally in the value of risk assets.