Europe

The identity of the new European capital markets and financial hub after Brexit has been a hot topic of debate ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, but as firms have chosen different locations across the continent in which to base their EU27 headquarters it is becoming clear that no single location is likely to replace London.

The Banking Association of Turkey has set out a restructuring framework for the country’s banks to cut corporate borrowers some slack over loan repayments and credit availability, as the government and financial sector continues to take steps to limit the fallout from Turkey’s political and economic crisis.

The Spanish market securities regulator overhauled some of its listing procedures at the end of 2017 in an effort to make the country a more attractive place for debt issuance. Its actions are already starting to bear fruit, as Spanish banks and companies show a much greater appetite for registering their bonds on home turf.

More supranational banks will use synthetic securitization and other risk transfer techniques, specialists believe, after the African Development Bank’s trailblazing $1bn deal, revealed this week, writes Jon Hay.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia won strong demand on Wednesday for its longest ever trade, allowing it to print a size almost double its target.

Bookrunners on the Funding Circle IPO, put out a covered message for Thursday night, only one day after setting a price range for the sale and announcing a closing date of September 27, earlier than some in the market were likely expecting.

Even though it’s likely the European Central Bank will lower purchases of covered bonds before long and despite a relatively busy pipeline, dealers are sanguine about the outlook for spreads.

Sulzer, the Swiss maker of industrial machinery, has made a Sfr15m ($15.5m) profit on a block of shares it acquired in April from its former majority owner, Renova Group, to escape economic sanctions imposed on Russian companies and individuals by the US Treasury’s OFAC.

US firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is putting together a financing package of around £3.5bn to fund its acquisition of half a wind farm off the coast of the UK that has been dubbed the largest of its kind by the seller.

NatWest Markets attracted €4bn of demand for a short-dated floating rate bond on Wednesday. Bankers on and off the deal disagreed about the size of new issue premium offered.

Loans bankers backing the merger between UK supermarkets J Sainsbury and Asda will have to wait before releasing funds for the multi-billion sterling deal, after the UK competition watchdog referred the deal for in-depth review.

Toyota may be a familiar name in the corporate bond markets, but Toyota Motor Finance Netherlands BV stepped out of the shadow of some of its parent company’s better known subsidiaries to issue its first benchmark bond in a major currency.