Europe

Czech Railways (České dráhy), the 100% state-owned Czech national railway operator, is embarking on a European roadshow for a seven year bond.

German bank senior preferred credit default swaps (CDS) will begin trading from May 13, after changes in German national law in 2018 that created a way for banks to issue senior preferred debt.

AB InBev, the Belgian brewer of Stella and Budweiser, confirmed on Tuesday that it is “actively exploring” the sale of a minority stake in its Asian unit on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Evotec, the biotech and healthcare company headquartered in Hamburg, has launched a Schuldschein with a €100m starting target.

FinecoBank may look to boost its leverage ratio with a €200m issuance of additional tier one securities in the coming months, as part of plans for the entity to operate independently from the UniCredit group.

Altice, the international telecoms group led by Patrick Drahi, has set final terms for its jumbo high yield bond issue for its holding company, worth €2.8bn. It paid up compared with its curve to issue, but managed to place the second largest triple-C tranche ever issued in euros, a source said.

Société Générale’s financing and advisory operations again produced strong revenues in the first quarter, according to results announced on Friday. Revenue in global markets and investor services fell, however, and here the bank is slashing risk-weighted assets, to refocus its business.

Watches of Switzerland Group, the largest retailer of luxury watches in the UK, is exploring an IPO on the London Stock Exchange to cut its debt and allow its private equity owner Apollo Global Management to sell down some of its shares in the company.

Covered bond supply is possible next week with core issuance in the ultra-long end and UK supply in the intermediate to long-end looking promising — despite holidays in the UK and France.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes so far this year.

HSBC’s global banking and markets division registered a small rise in income in its first quarter results announced on Friday. Transaction banking lines helped outweigh revenue declines in trading and the global banking business.

General Atlantic and Index Ventures, two pre-IPO shareholders in Dutch payments firm Adyen, hit the market on Thursday night to sell a €750m block of shares in the company.