Europe

The Bank of England has published its gender pay gap report, and has reiterated that it is doing everything it can to recruit senior female talent — but sources GlobalCapital spoke to said it isn’t hiring women that is the problem, but keeping them.

Spanish cash management and logistics company Prosegur Cash completed its roadshow for a benchmark new issue on Wednesday, and while the issuer chose not to bring its deal to market on Thursday, it may do so on Friday.

Sbanken Boligkreditt, formally known as Skandiabanken, has said that it expects to take advantage of its newly established Euro Medium Term Note (MTN) programme for long-term funding to begin issuing euro denominated covered bonds.

Bulgarian insurer Eurohold is attempting to cancel the bonds it issued last year as it markets a new deal this week.

Increased UK borrowing needs could take the shine off an opportunity for SSA borrowers to take advantage of a potential drop in issuance by the European Investment Bank as the UK leaves the European Union, said bankers.

Two leveraged loan deals in the market this week, for Tele Columbus and PlusServer, have both had their margins tightened by 25bp, suggesting that market participants who predicted early this week that spreads were going to start widening had spoken too soon.

Jyske Bank followed Danske Bank into the euro market for senior unsecured debt this week. But the product could soon become a rare sight in Denmark.

The dollar tranche of Ülker’s second loan of the year has been priced 20bp tighter than on its first loan of 2017, suggesting the market is swinging in Turkish borrowers’ favour as political noise in the country quietens down.

Direct Line Insurance is set to become the first insurer to sell a benchmark restricted tier one (RT1) deal in the sterling market. The UK insurer will use the proceeds from the transaction to buy back some of its older tier two notes and optimise its capital stack under Solvency II.

Once US Thanksgiving has passed, investment grade corporate bond bankers normally look to execute their last deals of the year before spending their days deciding what to buy their nearest and dearest for Christmas.

Shares in Migros Ticaret, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Turkey, fell 8.5% on Wednesday after BC Partners sold a 7.3% stake in the company in a block trade on Thursday night. The shares fell another 3.5% on Thursday.

Bpifrance on Wednesday became the second euro borrower to fail this week to reach full subscription, selling a €500m deal from a book of around €425m.