Europe

Blackstone has cut its stake in Intertrust, the Dutch provider of trusts and fund services, after an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night.

The UK’s conventional maturity curve is set to extend after the country’s Debt Management Office on Tuesday announced plans for its next syndication. The decision came as investors bemoaned the health of the sterling market.

BBVA tightened in pricing by 15bp for its first offering from a bond framework aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It was able to take €1bn of funding for green assets, the largest such deal in the format by a European bank.

Lebara, the telecommunications firm, is looking to redeem its €350m bond due 2022 early rather than list it on the Oslo exchange, after it failed to meet a deadline to produce full audited financial results. It seemed to suggest on Monday that unnamed forces were massing against it, but senior high yield bankers warned that the lightly regulated Nordic exchanges had always been likely to invite this sort of drama.

Ever since European Central Bank president Mario Draghi announced corporate bonds were to be included in the central bank’s quantitative easing programme, there has been a cacophony of dissenting voices debating the rights and wrongs of the policy. Yet no one seems to be talking about the biggest concern as the end of QE nears: the valuation of bonds the policy has affected.

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has raised Danske Bank’s capital requirements by Dkr5bn ($810m) after concluding that the bank’s management has not done enough to combat money laundering at its Estonian branch.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing on Thursday said it had selected Roland Chai to be the group’s risk officer. He will start in his new position on June 1.

Raiffeisen Landesbank-Steiermark attracted strong demand for the most generously priced 15 year Eurozone covered bond of the year, and the first from an Austrian lender in this tenor. The level of excess demand suggests market conditions may have begun to improve.

Natixis has hired a banker to cover Nordics and the Netherlands within its debt capital markets team for financial institutions.

Hungarian fertiliser company Nitrogénművek has released initial price guidance for its €200m seven year non-call three bond.

On Thursday, German car manufacturer Daimler made its second visit to the corporate bond market with a €2.25bn dual tranche offering. This followed a $4bn seven tranche issue on Monday.

CEVA Logistics, the freight management and contract logistics company, priced its IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange at the bottom of the range on Thursday.