Europe

Barclays’ corporate and investment bank performed strongly relative to peers in the last quarter of 2018, helping management make the case for a strong CIB franchise against investor Edward Bramson, who wants it to downscale this part of the group. Although analysts reckon the argument will continue, Aviva Investors announced it would be siding against the activist, after the results were released on Thursday.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has issued a decision against three funds that it has found to be in breach of competition law, for sharing price thoughts with each other during an IPO process.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development smashed its newly minted size record in sterling with its sophomore effort using the Sonia benchmark.

L-Bank will go on the road to promote the first ever Reg S dollar benchmark priced over the dollar risk free rate Sofr.

The European equity block trades market has finally recovered, after a very slow start to the year. Holders wanting to sell stock have been enticed by a recovering stockmarket, while also accepting that they need to swallow lower valuations than they could have got before the autumn sell-off. Sam Kerr reports.

Rentenbank printed at a tight spread on Thursday with a 10 year euro benchmark, swelling the deal to €1.25bn.

Sparebanken 1 Boligkreditt’s (Spabol) 10 year has the highest covered bond mark of all deals issued by any bank outside the eurozone this year on GC BondMarker. SEB issued the highest scoring Swedish deal and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) issued the best ranking Canadian covered bond this year.

UK Commercial Property Reit (UKCM) has added to its revolving credit facilities and reduced its term loans, shaving 10bp off its cost of funding, as lenders say sterling loans are viable despite Brexit uncertainty.

UK gambling software firm Playtech has raised its revolving credit facility to €272m, having agreed its first deal of that type since printing its debut bond in the last quarter of 2018.

BNP Paribas saved about 5bp on pricing by going green with its latest non-preferred senior offering this week, bringing the deal against an impressive market backdrop.

Of the 13 German Pfandbriefe issued this year, a trio of deals issued by DZ Hyp, BayernLB and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank are vying for the top covered bond mark.

Russian fertiliser producer EuroChem has mandated banks for a tender offer and new issue — the first from a Russian company that is not owned by the state in a year.