Europe

Equity investors are being especially careful about pricing as they put in orders for the first wave of European IPOs in 2019. What has alarmed them particularly is the the see-sawing performance of Lyft, the US taxi company that floated for $2.2bn last week.

G4S, the UK security and outsourcing firm, is set to enter the US private placement market in the coming weeks, GlobalCapital understands. The deal will test market appetite for UK support services companies, after the sector has been hit by repeated blows.

The Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt issued its debut Norwegian krone bond on April 1. The treasury was pleased with a successful private placement that could open up a new funding market for Saxony-Anhalt.

Barclays’ head of financial institutions bond syndicate for Europe, the Middle East and Africa has left the bank.

Kaupthing Bank has completed the first selldown of shares in Arion Banki, the Icelandic bank that was rescued during the financial crisis, since its re-IPO last year.

Sara George, who has been involved in some of the most eye-catching financial court cases over recent years, has joined Sidley Austin as a partner in its securities and derivatives enforcement and regulatory practice.

Norway’s DNB Bank on Tuesday broke a record for the tightest pricing in preferred senior format so far this year, finding strong demand for a new transaction, despite market concerns about money laundering among Nordic financial institutions.

Art Mbanefo is stepping down as chief investment officer at Barclays International and is leaving the bank.

ABB, the Swiss-Swedish machinery maker, issued an unusual bond on Tuesday: an 18 month floating rate note that grew as large as €1bn.

The final text of the covered bond directive strikes a balance that provides the flexibility to introduce new assets while defending the product’s credit quality and avoiding potential market disruption.

MetLife closed a funding agreement-backed (FAB) deal on Tuesday — its first euro bond offering since January 2015. The deal was more than three times subscribed, showing that investors are eager to diversify their portfolios into euro insurance paper.

The strength of demand in Europe's credit markets was amply demonstrated on Tuesday when Verizon, the US telecoms company, returned for the first time since 2017 with two tranches of euro bonds and one in sterling.