Europe

Germany’s Rheinmetall is in talks to buy a stake in Dutch defence company KNDS, as the European defence sector tries to shelter from the fallout of Brexit.

The last posting date for Christmas tends to coincide with the closing of the euro corporate bond market. Ahead of that coincidence this year, two postal companies have sold new bonds, after Deutsche Post followed La Poste of France’s lead.

European equity investors remain understandably nervous of adding risk to their portfolios, and ECM bankers are tailoring their approach to 2019 IPOs to deal with increased bearishness.

Fears that the Russian Federation's €1bn bond issue would only find demand domestically seem to have been assuaged as a source close to the deal said well over half the deal was sold to international investors. That source also denied the deal was in any way designed to bait the West, and said its timing was simply a matter of wanting to get ahead of worsening market conditions.

The market volatility in the week of the US Thanksgiving holiday was a microcosm of where the corporate bond market has evolved to through 2018. Market volatility and lack of buying interest pushed spreads wider again, but that widening meant investors could not resist new issues for long.

FIG investors are becoming more selective as liquidity conditions have begun to deteriorate. Larger new issue premiums have helped buoy primary demand but with fund inflows also starting to dry up, higher new issue concessions may not necessary be sufficient to ensure a successful deal outcome.

A Russia euro-denominated bond has taken investors by surprise this week, as emerging markets issuers seem to be taking their last gasps in the bond market this year.

The public sector market for sterling benchmark issues has shut down earlier than usual as a result of a plunge in Gilt yields — caused by concerns surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union — which has made new issues unattractive for investors.

Leveraged debt fund managers seem resigned to a low-rated deal pipeline and aggressive documentation this week, with the market likely to accept these conditions, despite a sell-off which saw the iTraxx Crossover at its widest so far this year, 340bp, on Wednesday.

Russia is doing it again — for the second time this year it has picked yet another politically unpalatable week to print a sovereign bond. It seems to be sticking a middle finger up to the west as it rolls around in cash and shows off the access the country has to capital markets. But if that was the motivation behind this issue, it has not accomplished its goals.

The European Central Bank is likely to decide soon whether to launch a new targeted long-term refinancing operation (TLTRO III) for banks. The market may already be forcing its hand, but the EU’s fight with Italy means the choice has wide-reaching implications.

The African Development Bank and Nederlandse Waterschapsbank were able to sell a pair of oversubscribed no-grow $500m socially responsible deals on Tuesday, despite tougher market conditions as the end of the year approaches.