Europe

To misquote Mark Twain, the reports of the death of the European IPO market appear to have been greatly exaggerated, after the most anticipated listing of the quarter soared on its first day of trading.

European member states and the EU Parliament will soon begin difficult talks to decide the length of an additional clearing exemption for pension funds.

Vivat, the Dutch insurer, was not taking any chances for its first restricted tier one transaction on Wednesday, offering investors a hefty 7% coupon for taking part in the deal.

Turkey’s Garanti bank has sold its first ever social bond, issuing a $75m private placement. The bond was purchased by the International Finance Corporation as part of its Banking on Women Programme.

The board of directors of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has renewed the contract of chief executive Charles Li for three years.

Pete Osborne, a former director at Singapore Exchange (SGX), has resurfaced at Canadian exchange operator TMX Group in London as head of European equity trading sales.

The European investment grade corporate bond market is still returning to full health on a day by day and deal by deal basis. On Tuesday, it took another step forward as Austrian oil and gas company OMV sold the first hybrid bond for a month and found investors still favouring the higher yielding asset class.

Those who invested in failed Spanish lender Banco Popular will have a right to be heard before the EU authority publishes the final assessment of the bank’s value next month, the Single Resolution Board (SRB) said this week.

Investors believe core covered bond spreads have the scope to tighten. but the underlying mood is still fragile, investors lack confidence and are fearful that volatility will return, especially in the peripheral markets. There is also a risk that the European Central Bank proves to be more hawkish than expected at this Thursday’s policy meeting.

The FCA’s decision to modify rules in order to allow sovereign owned companies — such as Saudi Aramco — to achieve a premium listing should be seen as just another chapter in the UK’s cosiness with the House of Saud.

While borrowers crowded into the euro market on Tuesday, investors were reluctant to commit funds only two days ahead of a hotly anticipated European Central Bank meeting.

Now that inflation has returned to Europe, but the economy is looking delicate, we will find out exactly how 'data-driven' Draghi's governing council really is.