Europe

Central banks and international financial institutions have raised a storm over vanishing investor protection covenants in leveraged loans. But most warnings about the market have avoided assigning blame where it is richly deserved — to the private equity industry.

Münchener Hypothekenbank sold its first Pfandbrief secured on green mortgages on Tuesday, managing to attract a solid swell of demand from a diversified set of new investors.

UK supermarket retailer Tesco announced on Monday that its most recent tender offer had been oversubscribed, completing a successful liability management exercise (LME) after selling €750m of bonds a fortnight previously. The company hopes the success of the deal will help it on the way to regaining its investment grade status with all rating agencies.

Österreichische Kontrollbank and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt priced well received dollar deals on Tuesday. The pipeline in the currency is building with Bank Nederlanse Gementeen and Swedish Export Credit Corporation having lined up three year trades.

Goldman Sachs was left long of stock in Bureau Veritas, the certification agency, after a €400m block trade on behalf of Wendel on Monday night.

The UK’s The Restaurant Group (TRG) has agreed to buy compatriot pan-Asian dining chain Wagamama, and is set to finance the bulk of the deal by raising £535m through new debt and a rights issue.

KfW received a final book of over €12bn for a five year euro benchmark on Tuesday, while the City of Hamburg closed out its funding for the year with its longest outstanding bond. Finnvera will add to the euro SSA supply this week, after mandating banks for a short 10 year that is likely to be its final syndication of the year.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation has set a strong precedent for Japan’s nascent covered bond market by attracting a comfortably oversubscribed, diverse, high quality order book for its first deal, the first from Japan.

EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Tuesday moved to reassure derivatives markets that the Commission would enact measures to avoid market disruption to clearing in a hard Brexit scenario.

On Tuesday, the European Central Bank’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) announced its areas of focus and concern for the banking sector in 2019. This year it has included climate-related factors as a driver of risk.

The UK's buyer base has welcomed a reduction in Gilt sales for this financial year, but have warned of economic pressure from the UK’s negotiations to exit the European Union.

Tottenham Hotspur is planning to be the latest football club to sell corporate bonds after its new stadium’s construction delays and cost have again increased.