Europe

Bank of Ireland is planning to bring the first covered bond from Ireland in over two years, while Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation is lining up a debut trade in sterling.

National Bank of Canada and Commerzbank both came to the market with seven year covered bonds on Tuesday.

Secondary trading platforms, buoyed up by Carillion and Steinhoff’s credit difficulties, are predicting a growth in trading activity in the Schuldschein market. Major players remain sceptical, however, questioning how widespread use of such trading platforms will ever become.

UK aircraft services company BBA Aviation plans to refinance $903.4m-equivalent of bank debt early during this year, with a $650m-equivalent revolving credit facility first in line to be replaced.

Insurance firm Axa has made a €12.4bn-equivalent cash bid for XL Group, and the French company says it already has €9bn of back-up bridge financing in place.

Scor SE tightened pricing significantly for its restricted tier one (RT1) trade on Tuesday, a deal that had an innovate structural feature that will allow it to be treated as a liability on the insurer’s balance sheet.

The low rates in Europe are making the euro high yield market an attractive option for US issuers like Belden, a St Louis-based manufacturer of telecoms equipment, which is launching a new euro bond to buy back old deals in euros and dollars. More US issuers are coming to euros, say bankers and investors.

Since Danish transport and logistics company AP Møller-Maersk last visited the bond market, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have downgraded its ratings and put them on negative watch. However, it still managed to issue its longest maturity deal so far in euros, alongside a tender offer.

Georgia Capital, the investment arm of Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO), had the sole attention of EM investors on Monday when it printed its new deal 70bp-75bp wider than Bank of Georgia.

JP Morgan has promoted Silvia Viviano to become its new head of equity capital markets execution for EMEA, succeeding Chris Roberts, who left the bank earlier this year to join Moelis & Co.

Gategroup Holding, the Swiss airline catering company, is planning to list on the SIX Swiss Exchange in an IPO that will allow its Chinese owner HNA Group to raise leverage-funds after a global acquisition spree.

The results of Italy’s general election on Sunday indicated swelling support for right wing populist ideologies in Italy, but the euro SSA market appears to have accepted the result with equanimity, although only one borrower has popped its head over the parapet so far.