Europe

Shareholders in Solutions 30, the French software services company, came to market on Thursday night with an equity block trade, intended to increase liquidity in the shares and give new investors the opportunity to buy into the name.

Covered bond investors are stoical on the outlook for Catalonia and prospective asset tapering. But one was less enamoured with deals issued this week by National Bank of Greece and Caixa Económica Montepio Geral.

CVC has made two unitranche loans in the Netherlands, to Voogd & Voogd and Berning, amid busy activity in leveraged debt markets of all kinds.

No fewer than five euro benchmark bond issues achieved an average score of nine or above in BondMarker voting in the third quarter. Voter preference was heavily weighted towards the long end of the curve: four of the five top-scoring deals of the quarter had tenors of 10 years or longer and two were longer than 30 years.

Companies that have priced bonds in Europe this week have paid very small new issue premiums, but only four deals have been priced in euros. The sterling market was almost as busy, with three issues. Bankers are, however, working hard to bring deals to market.

European officials failed to reach agreement on Thursday on a crucial reform to improve the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, the world’s largest carbon cap and trade scheme.

Corporate bond deals are often executed on Fridays to give issuers some space in crowded weeks. However, Friday was one the busiest days of this week, with both euro and sterling investors offered long dated deals to consider.

BASF is set for a busy year in the bond market in 2018, after announcing on Friday that it had agreed to buy parts of Bayer’s seed and non-selective herbicide businesses for €5.9bn, all in cash.

Rating: Baa3/BBB-/BBB-

Turkish oil refiner Tupras hit screens for the first time in five years on Thursday, with the transaction successful despite a geopolitical ruckus and a fatal tragedy at one of the company’s plants.

The appointment this week of John Flint as chief executive of HSBC carried none of the drama and internecine rivalry that marked the elevation of his predecessor Stuart Gulliver six years ago, but could have implications for the future leadership of the firm’s global banking and markets division.

At first glance the flurry of Italian banks entering the capital markets — including such unfamiliar names as Banca Popolare Dell’alto Adige (BPAA) and Banca Sistema — is an indication that international investors will lap up the debt of Italian minnows just as readily as they do for larger lenders in other peripheral Eurozone countries.