Europe

Gazprom on Tuesday sold the first public international bond from Russia since a punitive round of US sanctions was put on the country in April.

Two emerging market borrowers have been forced to postpone planned deals this week, with investors demanding better yields to risk their cash in the volatile market.

Global equity markets suffered a tough start to the week, which kept the EMEA blocks largely quiet.

Corporate bond investors have had to pick their way through a tricky market in 2018. A number of headwinds, both predictable and not, have made it difficult to produce the returns of previous years. However, there are a number of positives that remain, so how should investors move forward from here?

The Italian government’s refusal to make any concessions to the European Commission over its budget plans took investors by surprise this week, moving the 10 year BTP/Bund spread to its highest level since early 2013.

Despite the mounting number of risks on the horizon, the European leveraged finance market has ploughed on at a steady pace. While some investors say that is proof of healthy sophistication, others believe it is time for a big push back.

Any hopes for a resurgence in risk appetite among bank debt investors are starting to look far fetched in the closing stages of 2018.

The European Commission, on Tuesday, told UK clearing houses and securities depositories to pre-apply to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for recognition, should hard Brexit take place.

NordLB will launch a Schuldschein issuance platform alongside a fintech firm on Wednesday, according to many Schuldschein participants.

A Deutsche Pfandbriefbank three year Reg S dollar benchmark may have been meagrely oversubscribed on Tuesday but, at $600m, it was just large enough to make it over the size threshold required to meet the top liquidity coverage ratio category — to the benefit of certain investors.

Representatives from European Union (EU) member states were debating the role of central banks within the EU on Tuesday, as part of discussions over controversial proposals for a new framework for supervising clearing houses.

Loans desks are going to fall woefully short of budget expectations this year, in part because management puts so much faith in M&A bolstering volumes. This is folly.