Europe

LCH Group and pan-European exchange Euronext have revealed their completion of a share swap, in which the exchange took a 2.3% stake in LCH Group in return for an 11.1% stake in France-based clearing house LCH SA.

Deutsche Bank’s head of origination for corporate and financials in CEEMEA has moved to one of the bank’s clients as chief financial officer.

Ireland is set to become the first SSA borrower of 2018 to print a syndicated bond, picking banks for a benchmark deal to be sold on Wednesday. The German state of Lower Saxony will also come to market on Wednesday.

Sweden-based EQT has provided funding to Abac, a private equity firm in Catalonia, to invest further in local portfolio company Metalcaucho, which makes spare parts for cars. This was despite political unrest in the region.

Institutional lenders have participated in the Schuldschein market for decades. But as the market heats up, their offering of long-dated lending with a need for financial covenants has become less sought after. Now the institutions are working out ways to return.

Intercontinental Exchange on Tuesday announced that it had completed its acquisition of fixed income trading platform BondPoint from specialist liquidity provider Virtu Financial for $400m.

Steinhoff International, the retail conglomerate listed in Johannesburg and Frankfurt, said on Tuesday that its numbers for 2015 were unreliable and that prior years may also need to be restated.

Bankers are predicting the busiest first quarter on record, as the year ahead looks set to reflect the momentum of the last.

The European high yield bond market may have endured a year of multi-billion outflows from retail funds but investors and bankers on the first business week of 2018 are predicting a busy first quarter of supply will be met with sufficient demand.

LBBW and Barclays attracted strong demand for the first euro and sterling covered bond benchmarks of 2018 while ABN, Compagnie de Finacement Foncier (CFF) and Bank of Nova Scotia mandated leads for deals that suggested there would be a typically frenetic start to the year.

Russian mining and metals producer Mechel has successfully obtained sufficient support from its lenders to go ahead with further restructuring a $1bn syndicated loan facility.

Commerzbank is "working on" a replacement for two longstanding FIG syndicate bankers who left the firm just before Christmas.