Europe

Jacquet Metal Service, the French steel parts and distribution company, has raised €150m with its second Schuldschein.

United Overseas Bank issued its debut covered bond in sterling on Wednesday, and the first from a Singaporean bank. Despite being its maiden deal, UOB was able to match the spread of more established sterling issuers. At the same time, Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) has mandated for a euro covered bond benchmark.

Nordea and BPCE helped revive covered bond market confidence on Wednesday after some lacklustre deal receptions at the start of this week, with the successes due to thoughtful consideration of tenor and pricing strategies.

After four euro new issues in two days, the sterling market took its chance for a day in the spotlight as two issuers chose to bring new deals while euro borrowers remained on the sidelines. However, despite the recent lack of issuance, investors pushed back on spreads being tightened.

Aegon NV, the Dutch insurance group, could use restricted tier one (RT1) capital to replace grandfathered instruments.

Before this week, sterling corporate bond investors had had just four new issues to consider in 2018, but by Wednesday this had increased by three. Sterling investors have a reputation for not getting carried away with sentiment, but they have been pleased to see the increase in activity.

FIG syndicate bankers are advising issuers to get on with their capital and funding plans as quickly as possible in 2018.

Ziraat Bank launched a $1bn loan to refinance a facility signed in April last year, with pricing in line with Turkish peer Akbank’s new loan.

Moldova’s Trans-Oil opened books on the first ever Eurobond from the country on Wednesday, but the small size is likely to mean it flies under the radar of most investors.

The equity capital market has kicked back into life this week with a number of high profile deals to test investor appetite. But with investors challenging IPO valuations and volatility causing a scare, lead managers might have to start selling deals on their fundamentals rather than relying on bullish market sentiment to do the job.

Georgia Capital (formerly BGEO Investments), the Georgian holding company representing the investment business of BGEO Group, is embarking on a roadshow for a five year dollar bond.

A Turkish military strike in Syria on Tuesday hit investor appetite for Akbank’s subordinated tier two offering, with the raid causing several accounts not to come into the book at all, according to a lead manager.