Europe

Industrial conglomerate Melrose and its hostile acquisition target UK engineering firm GKN fired their final salvos in the run up to a crucial shareholder meeting on Thursday.

UK drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy Novartis’s 36.5% stake in the pair’s consumer healthcare joint venture, just days after backing out of an acquisition for a similar Pfizer unit.

Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé, a subsidiary of Pathé Group, has issued an inaugural Euro PP transaction in what is a large size for the busy market.

It has been a long held belief over the past few years that a return of volatility would be good for equity capital markets. But the speed of its return is causing many investors to give taking risk a wide berth.

France’s inflation linked bond issue on Wednesday drew the nation's largest book ever for a linker bond, in spite of a curve squeezed tight by volatility.

A selloff led by worries over tech and tariffs has continued from last week, with some bank strategists beginning to doubt there will be a return to the market conditions seen in January and the second half of 2017.

Two pulled deals the week before Easter sounded a bum note in what had been a harmonious period for European IPOs. A hefty pipeline will collide with increased market volatility to make bookbuilding difficult after Easter, writes Sam Kerr.

This week, Elysium Healthcare successfully refinanced the loan that backed its leveraged buyout by BC Partners, getting a bigger size and better pricing three months after the original deal was met with a lukewarm reception from investors.

High grade corporate issuers called time on the market heading into Easter, but bond bankers were eyeing the pipeline after the holiday with trepidation in case it ends up being so busy that it shuts the market down.

UK transport operator FirstGroup has raised dollar funding in the US private placement market in a bid to refinance sterling bonds expiring in September. According to one agent, the transaction was twice subscribed despite 15 other borrowers also being in the market.

Carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has amended its existing €6.25bn revolving credit facility to stretch out the maturity to 2023, but loans bankers are concerned about the low volumes of business to look forward to.

Covered bond investors would be better off ensuring a full recovery and maturity extension than accepting a partial recovery and claiming the remainder from the insolvency estate of the issuer, according to delegates who voted at the IMN conference in London on Tuesday.