Europe

Workspace Group, the UK real estate investment trust, has hit the market with a £189m capital increase following the publication of its annual results on Wednesday morning The deal was covered in an hour and a half.

The Republic of Croatia released initial price guidance for a 10 year bond on Wednesday morning and books for the deal are already in excess of €1.3bn.

Demand for leveraged debt in Europe is slowly recovering after weeks of heightened political volatility in the eurozone, some investors said this week.

After a volatile May, which ended with a week of no corporate bond issuance as market volatility and public holidays took their toll, investors have welcomed the slow, steady pace at which supply has returned.

Preferred senior bonds, an ever smaller proportion of the bank bond market, showed real value as investors suffered heavy losses on more popular products in May.

Slovakia sold 10 year and 50 year bonds from a combined book of over €5bn on Tuesday, the first European sovereign bond since Italy-led volatility last week turned government bond traders’ screens into a kaleidoscope of reds and greens. It was also the longest CEE print in over a decade.

Simon Gagey, the Southeast Asia head of loan syndicate and sales at BNP Paribas, will be relocating to Paris later this month, according to sources.

Spanish regulators are likely to introduce a wide range of essential revisions to the Cédulas law once the final version of the European Commission’s covered bond directive has been published. If carefully calibrated, the changes can be credit neutral. The biggest challenge is their implementation.

KfW will bring what bankers say will be the first “real jumbo test” for the market since a wave of Italy-led volatility hit bonds last week.

The Basque Government’s return to bond markets on Tuesday after a more than two year absence suggested that investors are not duly concerned about Spain being caught up in volatility last week, with orders ploughing into the debut sustainable bond issue.

Rentenbank on Tuesday sold what Dealogic data shows is its largest ever euro benchmark, while the State of North Rhine Westphalia visited the long end of the curve.

After the UK Treasury sold £2.5bn of RBS stock this week, observers quickly pointed out that the sale represented a huge loss for taxpayers. Yet the gradual return of the bank to full private ownership is a win for the UK financial sector and for the economy as a whole.