Europe

After a week without any high yield issuance, Verisure launched €1.1bn of dividend recapitalisation and refinancing bond deals this week. The market was already growing busier under tighter secondary spreads and a new refinancing deal from Intertrust.

Adform, the Danish advertising technology company, will brave difficult markets to list on Nasdaq Copenhagen this November.

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) and Coventry Building Society have mandated leads for the first five year Sonia-linked covered bonds, Lloyds is out with the first Reg S dollar covered bond from a UK issuer in years, and DZ Hyp has mandated leads for the first deal under its new brand name. Elsewhere, Bank of Nova Scotia has opened order books for a three year sterling tap.

Coca-Cola European Partners opened the European corporate bond market on Monday with its third visit to the market since the company was created in 2016. The €400m nine year bond was three times subscribed.

There is increasing confidence among market participants that the European Central Bank will renew its policy of providing banks with cheap financing, given the arrival of tougher issuance conditions and more stringent liquidity requirements.

Two listings from Slovenia and Belarus are due to close this week and the sellers are hopeful of getting the deals across the line, despite market challenges.

FX and equity markets jump as a possible US-China trade deal is back in sight, Chinese president Xi Jinping promises more developments on free-trade zones and a registration-based stock system, and the Dubai International Financial Centre takes action to expand Chinese institutions’ access to the Middle East Africa and South Asia (MEASA).

A volatile October battered global equity markets and EMEA IPOs suffered a brutal sell-off in line with global movements. But the IPO market still outperformed global equity indices, showing that new listings still offer relative value in difficult markets.

Covered bond spreads are likely to be wider in January when supply typically peaks, making a good argument for pre-funding this November and giving optimism to some bankers. However, while there are a few projects slated for next week, other bankers do not believe an avalanche of deals is likely.

The US Treasury has lifted sanctions on two Turkish officials following the release of pastor Andrew Brunson — a US citizen Turkey had detained for two years on suspicion of espionage and links to terrorism.

Merian Chrysalis Investment Co, a new closed-end investment fund focused on private companies, has raised £100m against a difficult market backdrop, after concluding its fixed price IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

UBS tapped the Tokyo Pro-Bond market this week to raise ¥150bn ($1.33bn) of funding for its total loss absorbing capacity, at a time of little volume in the FIG euro market.