Europe

KBC Group has moved a year in advance to take a chunk out of its refinancing requirements in the additional tier one market, pricing €1bn of new paper in line with where its closest peers were trading on Tuesday.

The Dutch Banking Association has responded to a European Commission consultation on the introduction of ‘Basel IV’, heaping criticism on the proposed introduction of a capital output floor.

German residential property company Grand City Properties brought its third corporate bond deal of 2018 to the market on Tuesday, while the return of seed company Syngenta with a jumbo multi-tranche deal neared.

Pimco has appointed a new head of its European high yield portfolio, as it looks for opportunities to invest in speculative grade credit, the firm said in a statement on Monday.

The Belgian government has laid out its proposal for a deal with previous owners of Arco Group, the former shareholder in Dexia Bank, which would allow Belfius Bank to proceed with its IPO.

The lack of a fluid conversation in the European high yield market between bond buyers on one side, and underwriters and borrowers on the other, will cause trouble for everybody, say some fund managers and their advisers. They are already turning around this situation in their favour, but investment banks have yet to react.

M&G Investments has announced the public launch of a private debt fund that aims to achieve a positive social or environmental impact, while giving investors a return higher than that of public bonds. Meanwhile, a survey suggests funds of this kind make good returns.

Some EM fund managers and fixed income analysts are already in discussions over whether investors stuck holding Rusal bonds may be able, with the issuer’s help, to create a workaround that would allow the company to stay current on its debt obligations.

UK construction company Galliford Try has raised £164m through a rights issue to cover the costs related to the collapse of construction and facilities management firm Carillion in January, after the successful conclusion of its fully underwritten rights issue on Monday.

Hanover has become the first city to offer a green Schuldschein.

GlobalCapital presents an overview of some of the SSA bond markets' most frequent issuers’ BondMarker scores in the first quarter of this year.

Not a day goes by without some analyst, regulator or senior exchange executive weighing in on where the clearing of euro swaps should reside post-Brexit.