Europe

Boutique investment bank SC Lowy signalled the potential it sees in the Italian banking sector through its acquisition of Credito di Romagna this week. Michel Löwy, CEO of the firm, also views it as a way to expand the firm’s European leveraged finance operations.

Investors were queuing up to place orders for new deals from Norway’s Sbanken Boligkreditt and Poland’s mBank Hipoteczny on Thursday, as the pair looked to enter the euro covered bond market for the first time.

Turkish real estate developer Ronesans Gayrimenkul Yatirim has released initial price guidance on its benchmark five year bond, which a rival syndicate has called wide but a lead said was the pick-up investors are demanding over Turkish international corporates.

EPIF Infrastructure, has released initial price guidance for a six year fixed rate euro benchmark.

Lukoil has raised a $600m 10 year export credit agency-backed loan via its Uzbekistan subsidiary, as bankers say the loan market remains open for some Russian borrowers.

Weir Group, the UK energy and mining equipment maker, is to acquire US-based industrial component manufacturer Esco Corp, and has raised £363m in gross proceeds, through an accelerated sale of new shares to finance the cash component of the $1.05bn acquisition.

Bernie Mensah has been crowned president of EMEA at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, adding to his responsibilities as co-head of global FICC trading.

KfW took home €5bn in the seven year part of the euro curve, which has been red hot for a few weeks, with bankers citing low second quarter supply as particularly supportive of conditions and suggesting there is plenty more interest for further trades in the tenor. The European Financial Stability Facility is lining up a deal for next week — although bankers are suggesting it looks at the long end.

After several weeks of focusing on conventional bonds in core currencies, SSAs popped back into the socially responsible investments (SRI) market this week. Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB) is laying the ground for an affordable housing bond in euros, while the European Investment Bank found a solid reception for a Climate Awareness Bond that came in rare seven year dollar form.

Several of the earliest Euro private placements will mature in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2018. As Euro PP agents gear up for their first serious spate of refinancings, the market faces a test: will its inaugural issuers remain loyal?

Rocket Internet has completed the first sale of shares in HelloFresh, the German meal kit delivery company, since its €276m IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October.

Primary Health Properties, the healthcare REIT that invests in properties across the UK and Ireland, completed a capital raising on Wednesday and grew the size of the offering by £15m.