Europe
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Euro agencies favoured fives over the last seven days, as KfW smashed its order record and a pair of French agencies brought taps at sizes multiple times their target. With some SSA bankers saying conditions are the best they have ever seen, supply looks likely to keep coming. -
There was another scorching start to the year for eurozone sovereigns this week with yet more records dropping as Belgium took its largest ever number of orders and Austria sold its biggest ever deal from its largest ever book. But it was the nature of the successes — Belgium with a long dated trade and Austria the most expensive 10 year of the year so far — that really caught the eye.
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Greece’s impressive return to the public bond markets this week has set the perfect backdrop for further syndication in 2019, which bankers say could be a 10 year, a maturity it has not tested since its 2014 post-bailout comeback. The big bid for eurozone periphery debt could also see Greek and Italian banks sell covered bonds in the near future, according to market participants. Burhan Khadbai and Bill Thornhill report.
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While banks fight shy of big-ticket mergers, a select group of private equity firms are leading the restructuring of the industry in Europe, writes David Rothnie.
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Financial institutions bond bankers are hoping that the additional tier one market is back in fashion with investors, after UBS was able to attract a whopping $16bn of orders for a $2.5bn transaction this week.
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Russian state-owned oil and gas giant Gazprom announced the mandate for a new dollar benchmark bond on Thursday, just days after a well-flagged move by the US Treasury to lift sanctions on Rusal and EN+. Market participants hailed the move as providing a more “constructive” and “encouraging” environment for Russian bonds.
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Several public sector borrowers tapped the socially responsible investment (SRI) market this week, with more deals expected in February, before what many analysts expect will be a record year for the asset class.
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Sixteen companies, all leading green bond issuers, have formed a Corporate Forum on Sustainable Finance. Electricité de France was the prime mover. Xavier Girre, chief financial officer of EDF, tells GlobalCapital why the group is needed, why he supports a green supporting factor and how EDF’s sustainable finance strategy is developing.
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Spanish telecoms company Telefonica this week became the latest issuer to sell green bonds. The volume of money dedicated to green bond investments meant that there was huge demand and the deal had participation of nearly 50% from green investors. But if those buyers had that much conviction they wouldn’t have waited for this trade.
