Europe

Turkey’s Akbank has the sole attention of EM investors on Tuesday as it looks to price its second Basel III compliant tier two transaction.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council has confirmed Luis de Guindos, the Spanish finance minister, as its choice for the next vice president of the European Central Bank. The decision came amid criticism of the institution's lack of female representation.

Spain has picked banks for its second deal of the year, looking towards the long end of the curve for the first time since May 2016.

In stark contrast with a mute high yield bond market, leveraged loan investors were expecting more than €5bn of new deals on Monday, including a $725m-equivalent deal from Swedish trade technology provider Itiviti, which includes a triple-C rated second lien.

Oleg Deripaska is to step down from his role as president of EN+, the Russian aluminium and hydropower company, which floated for $1.5bn in London and Moscow in November, and as president of its affiliate Rusal, as part of a pre-planned organisational change in which he will shift focus to other business interests.

For the first day this year since January 10, investors had a choice of three benchmark new issues in the investment grade corporate bond market. All three issuers were BBB+ rated, but the variety of tenors and spreads meant none of the deals were directly competing. However, new issue premiums have increased after the recent bout of volatility.

Société Générale built an order book of around €2.6bn on Monday, as it became the first issuer to venture into the subordinated market following the sell-off earlier this month.

Berlin Hyp left some new issue premium on the table for investors on Monday, while Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt lined up a deal for Tuesday. ANZ New Zealand was also considering covered or senior unsecured issuance.

A hardening of the US attitude to Iran, tensions with Turkey and the Qatari crisis may be closing some doors for trade in the Middle East but experts are convinced it is opening others, with China's One Belt, One Road initiative pushing countries such as China, India and Russia towards the region.

German supermarket group REWE has doubled its initial target size of €500m, becoming the first corporate in 2018 to place a €1bn Schuldschein loan.

Santander's co-head of FIG trading has left the bank. GlobalCapital understands.

London Stock Exchange Group's CurveGlobal, an interest rate derivatives platform, on Monday said it would launch a three-month futures contract based on the benchmark rate set to replace sterling Libor, in the second quarter of 2018.