Europe

Huatai Securities, the Chinese brokerage, has set the price range for its $1.65bn sale of global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange, enticing investors with a healthy discount to the Shanghai-listed A shares.

Inalfa Roof Systems Group, a Netherlands-based car roof system supplier owned by Beijing Hainachuan Automotive Parts, is tapping Asian liquidity for a €200m loan.

HSBC has chosen its new convertible bonds boss in EMEA from its own ranks, according to a source familiar with the matter.

This week is set to be busy in Europe's investment grade corporate bond market, despite yet another dead day on Monday because of public holidays. Equities rose on Monday and sentiment is good; market participants have decided they are comfortable with what they got from the European Central Bank on Thursday.

Umicore, a Belgian materials technology and recycling group, has sold US private placements via MUFG, according to sources. Continental European borrowers appear to be ramping up activity in the US private placement market once more, with Umicore following Brussels Airport and Ipsen.

IPO investors appear to be putting a high premium on company fundamentals when looking at new listings, focusing less on thematic trends and more on underlying numbers, as shown by the listings of Watches of Switzerland and Marel.

Investors are being forced towards riskier instruments for better returns, with safer assets looking expensive.

The UK’s Emmerson is in talks of a project finance loan of up to $230m, with the deal for the potash extraction company expected to be syndicated among a handful of commercial banks and export credit agencies.

John Manh has joined Bank of America as part of its equity sales team.

After restructuring its soft bullet programme to a conditional pass through (CPT), Alpha Bank’s covered bonds have been upgraded to Baa3, making them eligible for repo with the European Central Bank, thereby improving their appeal with investors, putting the bank in a stronger position for a return to the market.

Ukraine has mandated banks for a seven year euro-denominated benchmark bond, with the sovereign due to meet investors after a sharp rally in its bonds.

Barclays said on Monday that it has made Stephen Dainton permanent global head of markets, a position he took up on an interim business after a reorganisation of the investment bank in March.