Europe

The European Stability Mechanism is set to follow the Federal State of Berlin in printing a bond at the long end of the curve, after sending out a request for proposals on Wednesday.

Energy group Arensis has secured funding for new facilities in the UK from Hadrian’s Wall Capital. Recent fundraising in the private debt market suggests there is high demand for new deals.

The European markets for leveraged debt were on holiday this week, with no primary deals, moderate trading volumes and a slow but persistent widening. Some investors believe this week’s recess will be replaced by tougher markets in September.

A flurry of new issuance activity on Wednesday did not prevent Bank of Ireland from pricing its first senior deal from its holding company at a level that was close to the fair value implied by secondary market valuations.

Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) was able to whittle down the new issue concession for its 8 year covered bond on Wednesday, but demand was weaker than for Tuesday’s two trades.

Rabobank welcomed huge demand on Wednesday for its first ever non-preferred senior bond, bringing a deal forward before the Netherlands has legislated for the asset class.

The European Central Bank on Monday fined Crédit Agricole for not obtaining permission to classify instruments as common equity tier one (CET1). GlobalCapital understands this related to ordinary shares issued in an equity raise.

It’s been a turbulent summer in emerging markets, but borrowers in the Middle East in particular are already eyeing their return to the market.

The US S&P 500 index hit a record high on Tuesday, which means that the US equity bull market had, by most standards, equalled the longest in history. Nevertheless primary equity market practitioners seem to retain a sense of gloom that the good times are about to end.

European corporate bond market participants are enviously looking at their counterparts in the financial and SSA sectors as supply started to flow again in those areas this week. There is no sign yet of any corporate bond issuers returning from the summer hiatus, but investors have clear ideas about what they want.

Lenders working on Turkish bank syndicated loans say deals are still going ahead, and any suggestion that the country’s woes have postponed the active deals are just rumours.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group on Wednesday said that it would launch two new interest rate futures referencing the sterling overnight index average (Sonia) on October 1.