Europe

Barclays has hired two interest rates options traders in London, as it seeks to grow the business and expand its product offering.

Solarpack Corp Tecnologica, the Spanish solar power generation company, has begun bookbuilding for its €101m IPO on the Spanish Stock Exchanges after the deal prospectus was approved by market regulator CNMV on Tuesday.

Equita, an Italian independent investment bank, has made two hires as it seeks to beef up its fixed income offering.

Kommuninvest took advantage of the lack of competing SSA supply on Wednesday to price a long three year dollar trade ahead of the US holidays. Meanwhile, Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has appointed banks to arrange investor calls for its annual water bond.

The European Parliamentary Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted on its version of the covered bond directive on Tuesday, with the European Council yet to agree its text. But a leaked draft of the Council’s 'overall compromise text', seen by GlobalCapital, suggests the two sides are getting closer together.

US medical technology company Stryker is still looking to bring its debut euro transaction following its recent roadshow, but is waiting for market conditions to improve before pushing its triple-tranche offering into the market.

Crédit Agricole is the latest bank to speak to investors about issuing a green bond, at a time when other European names have been marketing deals in the format.

Instituto de Crédito Oficial, already well established in the social bond market, is planning to broaden its socially responsible investment offering with its first ever green bond next year.

VakıfBank will close its loan refinancing in the coming days and is set to be followed closely by Garanti Bank, as Turkish financial institutions defy the crisis of confidence in the country's economy triggered when the lira crashed in August.

An alarming sell-off in the additional tier one market this week has added to investor woes after a brutal year for returns. New supply of subordinated debt is likely to be off the table in 2018, unless banks find the stomach for huge new issue premiums.

Equity capital markets professionals are still working on a handful of potential opportunities to do block trades before the end of the year, but with investors nursing heavy losses and volatility still trading well above recent historical norms, they are doing everything possible to de-risk trades before launch.

Investors took up just over €700m during the first two days of the first BTP Italia sale since the Italian bond market sell-off began in May, leaving the sovereign heading for a volume far less than its target of €6bn-€8bn, according to buy-side strategists.