Europe

The looming US-China trade war is stalking European corporate credit markets, though it has not yet made a full-on assault on confidence. Investment grade bond players blamed a quiet start to the week on it, and it seems now to be finally being noticed in high yield land, where opportunistic issues have dried up.

Aquila Capital, the Hamburg-based alternative asset manager, is hoping to float a renewable energy fund in London which is unusual in giving exposure to wind, solar and hydroelectric power.

Metro Bank shareholders are nursing losses of around 70% since the start of the year. But if this is the worst of UK banking’s problems right now, the sector is in pretty good shape as it faces Brexit and digital disruption.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) started its 2019/20 funding year with a bang on Tuesday, selling a six and a half times subscribed issue.

Trade war concerns and US title insurer Fidelity National Information Service’s eight tranche €6.44bn equivalent deal crowded out issuers from the corporate euro investment grade market on Tuesday, bankers and investors said. But several are hopeful that deal flow could pick up later in the week.

Shares in HelloFresh, the Frankfurt-listed online meal kit delivery company, rose by 2.6% on Tuesday after Rocket Internet sold all its remaining shares in the company in response to a number of reverse inquiries from institutional investors.

The World Bank sold its first 10 year euro benchmark since 2009 on Tuesday, with the supranational going slightly through its own curve on its return, according to onlooking SSA bankers.

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has mandated leads for a roadshow ahead of a possible euro senior unsecured or covered bond benchmark.

Commerzbank’s small and medium sized German corporate clients did not want to be serviced by the firm if it were merged with Deutsche Bank, according to Michael Reuther, head of the corporate clients unit at the former. His unit is now hoping to take more revenue from its existing clients, after growth in several of them in the first quarter.

KfW picked banks on Tuesday to lead its largest ever green bond. The deal will come from its recently updated green framework, which includes funding for energy efficiency projects, in addition to the renewable energy sector in Germany.

Covered bonds issued on Tuesday by UniCredit Bank AG and Hypo Vorarlberg Bank (HVB) found good demand, mainly from bank investors. Despite their meagre and diminishing returns, the bonds offered a better spread compared to other regulated assets.

Vonovia, the German residential property company, returned to the market on Monday to sell €744m of new shares on an evening where markets had largely sold off because of fears about growing tensions between the US and China.