Europe

The shock departure of deputy chief executive Didier Valet from Société Générale last week leaves a hole at the top of the bank’s corporate and investment bank that will be difficult to fill, writes David Rothnie

The power of equity capital markets to solve complex corporate finance problems elegantly was vividly demonstrated on Tuesday night when JP Morgan and Crédit Agricole led a €2bn sale of Vivendi’s whole 27% stake in Ubisoft, the video game developer, writes Sam Kerr.

Details have emerged on £1.5bn of underwritten loans for the UK’s Phoenix Group, as the life assurance fund consolidator moves closer to its £3.24bn cash and shares purchase of Standard Life Aberdeen’s insurance arm.

The Loan Market Association (LMA) has launched standardised guidelines for green loans, a move that bankers say is a significant step forward in expanding the nascent market.

The European Securities and Markets Authority on Wednesday clarified an important section of transparency regulation MiFIR that makes counterparties trade certain derivatives on specified trading venues.

B&S, the Dutch consumer goods distribution specialist, has revised the price range for its €358m IPO on Euronext Amsterdam, which is due to be priced on Thursday.

Funding officials said green bonds had stimulated other sustainability work across their organisations at the Climate Bonds Initiative conference in London on Tuesday.

Axa started the bond market portion of the financing of its acquisition of XL Group on Wednesday, attracting books of more than €4.1bn for a tier two debt deal.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) was this week obliged to pay a generous new issue premium for its second euro benchmark of the year, reflecting weaker credit conditions, investor indigestion and its desire to issue in large size.

The 2018 IPO market is up and running with investors keen to buy into new listings given the generous selling strategies of issuers.

2018 has proven a difficult year for the IG corporate bond market so far. Instead of the smooth waters of 2017, conditions have been more choppy and issuers and their syndicates have had to navigate a more careful path to market and often paying more to insulate investors from secondary market volatility. However, there are likely to be more difficult conditions ahead with fewer support mechanisms available.

Investors are calling on the UK Debt Management Office to extend the sovereign’s curve with its next syndication, as the buy-side cheered an agreement on a Brexit transition deal.