Europe

China’s market regulator has released the first set of proposed rules for the long-talked-about London-Shanghai Stock Connect — but whether it represents a real opening up or simply a political manoeuvre is yet to be seen. Jonathan Breen and Paolo Danese report.

China has made little headway in persuading the Russian government and Russian institutions into using the renminbi, as the fate of a sovereign bond in the currency remains uncertain and trading of RMB products stalls. But market participants are not giving up just yet, with a new trading platform set to launch next year, writes Paolo Danese.

The United States’ top derivatives regulator, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Christopher Giancarlo, this week apologised for his organisation’s past regulatory overreach in policing foreign derivatives markets and called for a “reset” in relations with the European Union. The Europeans would be wise to take him up on his offer.

Japanese investment bank Nomura is increasing its involvement in European real estate — including the UK market, where the exit from the European Union could spark new business.

European equity-linked investors binged on the first convertible bond of the autumn, gobbling up the €500m five year equity neutral bond issued by Adidas, the German sports equipment manufacturer, in a couple of hours. And there will be more to come, say bankers, who expect a pick-up in the convertible bond space.

BP Partners, the European private equity firm, sold out of specialist insurance Sabre last night, less than a year after the company’s IPO.

After a drought of new investment grade corporate bonds from the telecom sector, French operator Orange made it two in two days after Telefónica sold a seven year trade on Tuesday. Orange offered a 12 year tranche as well as another seven year offering, but had to leave something on the table to achieve a €2bn print.

On the same day BMW reopened the euro corporate bond market following the summer break, Daimler reopened the sterling market. On Wednesday, BMW decided to follow a similar path to Daimler for its own sterling deal, but could not achieve quite the same success.

Rothesay Life, a UK life insurer, sold a restricted tier one bond on Wednesday. It took sterling issuance of the fledgling asset class above £1bn ($1.29bn).

Nordic equity capital markets investors had several deals to look at on Tuesday night, with two deals contributing over €587m of issuance in Nordic ECM.

A day after Swedish bearings and seals manufacturer SKF announced a tender offer for its outstanding short dated bonds, it sold a €300m seven year bond to finance the buy-back.

Lloyds Bank found strong demand for the first Sonia-linked sterling transaction from a financial institution. Meanwhile the euro covered bond market ground to a standstill with just Wüstenrot Bausparkasse mandating leads for a sub-benchmark deal.