Europe

Bankers selling the large quantity of IPOs in process in Europe will not be pleased to see that shares in Bawag, the Austrian bank, are trading 1% down after their debut on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Earlier this morning they were as much as 4% down, so there appears to be a recovery in progress.

Euro corporate bond issuance was much cooler on Tuesday after Monday’s fireworks. “Maybe everybody parties on day one and is a bit hung over on day two,” mused one syndicate banker.

Catalyst Housing, a UK social housing association based in Ealing, west London, made an impressive debut in the bond market this week, garnering £350m of demand for a £150m deal and pricing inside Notting Hill Housing Trust, its closest comparable.

Wind Tre, the Italian telecoms company, issued its €7.3bn senior secured bond deal on Tuesday, a day ahead of schedule, and priced all four tranches at the tight end of guidance.

Deutsche Bank is tonight leading a block trade so that three foundations that are among the largest shareholders in Liberbank can 'tail-swallow', meaning sell some of their stakes to finance subscription to Liberbank's €500m rights issue.

Intercontinental Exchange, the global exchange and clearing house operator, on Tuesday announced it had bought a 4.7% stake in Euroclear from Royal Bank of Scotland for €275m. The move was followed a few hours later by an announcement that it would buy fixed income trading venue BondPoint from Virtu Financial for $400m.

Nobody really believes that €126bn of debt issued under English law will stop counting towards the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) as soon as the UK leaves the EU. So why should European authorities pretend that it’s a risk?

The Banque de France has set out its own criteria for the linguistics of the Basel reforms — if only reaching an agreement was as easy.

A new bond refinancing deal for German fashion company Takko will provide a welcome boost to triple-C bond volumes, although it is not clear whether the deal will pave the way for a wave of risky credits to return to the high yield market, bankers said.

Ablynx, the Belgian biopharmaceutical firm, has raised $200m through a second listing in the US, following positive momentum in the development of a new drug designed to combat a life-threatening blood clotting disorder.

Exchange and clearing house operator Deutsche Börse and its CEO Carsten Kengeter are back in hot water after a multi-million euro settlement offer over alleged insider trading was thrown out by Frankfurt’s local court on Monday. Senior public prosecutor in Frankfurt, Nadja Niesen, told GlobalCapital on Tuesday that the court rejected the prosecution's attempts to settle the case by means of a "monetary penalty".

Shares in Bawag, the Austrian banking group, closed below their offer price on Wednesday after the company priced its €1.68bn IPO at €48 a share, near the bottom of the initial €47 to €52 range.