Europe

Dutch car leasing company LeasePlan has achieved a negative new issue premium on its first ever green bond, paving the way for the issuer to become a regular visitor to the market as it expands its electric vehicle fleet.

Two Turkish issuers were back on screens this week as the country continues its rehabilitation in the capital markets. QNB Finansbank printed with a 10bp new issue premium, according to one lead manager, a level which he said shows how far Turkey has come since the sovereign paid up 50bp for its post-volatility return to market trade in October.

Galicia on Thursday made a triumphant return to the bond markets on Thursday as it became the latest Spanish autonomous community to print after several years away.

Equity capital markets came to life this week as several issuers across Europe announced strategic capital raising plans and block trades hit screens.

The Spanish Treasury is studying the possibility of issuing green bonds — a shift from its previous position on the format — after the country’s government last week outlined a series of measures to decarbonise the economy by 2050. Spain is also adjusting its inflation-linked bond issuance strategy this year.

Germany’s Merck has made an unsolicited $5.9bn enterprise value offer for Versum, the US maker of materials for the electronics industry, amid a spate of mergers and acquisitions announced this week, though financiers say that has yet to spark a rise in loan demand.

The EMEA region syndicated loan market has endured its second consecutive month of multi-year volume lows, with February volumes collapsing a massive 84.5% year on year.

Koç Holding, Turkey's largest holding company, has mandated three banks for a five or seven year dollar RegS/144A benchmark. An investor has said that given recent Turkey volatility, he would want to see a much larger premium over the Turkey curve for the longer of those two options.

QNB Finansbank has revised initial price thoughts for its benchmark dollar 5.5 year bond, with books for the deal over $1.4bn. Both an investor and a syndicate official had said earlier in the day they expected tighter pricing.

ABN Amro, one of the banks at the centre of the global financial crisis in 2008, hopes that a new structure designed to deliver on a corporate and institutional banking (CIB) strategy anchored closer to home will allow it to prosper.

UK IPO sellers should consider an entirely different listing process, to cope with more volatile markets and ensure a flotation has a higher chance of success, argues Richard Brown, corporate finance partner at US law firm Baker Botts in London.

Poland is in the market for its most ambitious green bonds yet. It has opened books for two tranches of euro debt, hitting the 10 and 30 year maturity buckets.