Europe

Interest rate derivatives platform CurveGlobal launched futures based on the sterling overnight average, a designated successor to Libor, on Monday. The chief executive of the platform, Andy Ross, told GlobalCapital that he expected the new product to “develop over time”, and that the platform would not release any other Sonia futures until liquidity improved sufficiently.

The launch of yet another new social housing real estate investment trust (Reit) this week will not be easy. The market has felt congested recently, and peers have ridden over a few bumps. But there ought to be a place for this asset class.

Caja Rural Navarra’s fruitful return to the covered bond market last week was underpinned by several important elements, not least its decision to update and improve its sustainability framework. In the context of the European Central Bank’s diminishing support, the bank’s efforts offer a salutary guide to other borrowers, who will soon be obliged to compete harder for investors’ attention.

Despite expectations of a slowdown in the pace of issuance in the European high yield market, two borrowers brought €2.9bn of new bonds this week. Both issuers, Spanish construction firm Aldesa and Italian banking payments group Nexi, marketed refinancing deals.

The investment grade corporate bond market in the US finished April on a high, with more than $8bn of issuance on Monday. Issuers wanted to get the deals done before the US Federal Reserve met on Tuesday and it was a European issuers that led the way.

News last Friday from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that Oleg Deripaska is set to give up his control of Rusal by removing his majority stake in EN+ (Rusal’s parent) is the best possible outcome at this point for the US, for Russia, and for investors.

UK financial institutions have issued record volumes of debt so far in 2018, and there is likely to be plenty more to come, as issuers look ahead to the risks posed by the UK's exit from the European Union.

The impact of Brexit on the UK’s small and medium-sized companies appears to be waning — welcome news for the sterling US private placement market — according to Intermediate Capital Group research.

Elliott International, the US hedge fund, sold a block of shares in Charter Court Financial Services, the UK challenger bank, after Market close on Monday.

Fintech firm Paysafe was out in the leveraged loan market this week with a chunky $800m extension of the loan deal it sold for its own acquisition in November.

By attracting private investors to provide risk capital to microfinance firms in the developing world, Global Parametrics is hoping to bolster insurance provision against natural disasters to families and businesses in poor countries.

Despite some signs of investor fatigue in Europe's IPO market, Horizon, an alternate investment manager, plans to float a new social housing real estate investment trust (Reit) that offers a “differentiated product” from those that listed in 2016 and 2017, according to a source close to the deal.