Europe

Nationale-Nederlanden Bank (NN Bank) issued its first covered bond flat to fair value, yet still managed to achieve a subscription ratio higher than any other Dutch covered bond in at least five years.

Hungary had taken books of €5.75bn for its new euro benchmark on Wednesday, after announcing that investors had agreed to tender $3.3bn of its outstanding dollar notes.

The buy-side is slowly removing European duration from portfolios in anticipation of the European Central Bank cutting its asset purchase programme, according to an investment director. Meanwhile, new cash flowing into the eurozone periphery is likely to go to Italy over Spain while uncertainty lingers over Catalonia’s future.

German Unity Day and Golden Week in Asia have given European corporate bond investors a break from new issues and a chance to consider whether the current tight level of spreads is right or too tight. Many expect more tightening to come, so picking the right sectors and geographies will be the key to performance.

Finland’s Aktia Bank sold a sub-benchmark three year floating rate deal on Wednesday, attracting attention despite competition from five other financial institutions in the euro market.

Despite the momentum in Europe’s equity capital markets showing little sign of stalling, with a new wave of deals this week across a number of sectors, two of the year’s most high profile IPOs have traded down in the aftermarket.

With 65m people displaced worldwide, the refugee crisis can seem insurmountable. But despite this daunting scale, initiatives are being tried that could help some of those affected. Citigroup’s charitable foundation is giving $2m to a project to train refugees for the job market and entrepreneurship, in Greece, Jordan and Nigeria.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has picked two banks to run the books for its eighth sterling trade of the year.

Investors got another chance to build up more exposure to the UK’s flourishing challenger banking sector on Tuesday night when JC Flowers, the US private equity firm, launched another block trade of shares in OneSavings Bank.

National Bank of Greece’s covered bond rating would be higher given the bank’s commitment to a 25% minimum overcollateralization ratio, but this is constrained by the sovereign and issuer rating.

Elis, the French laundry services company, issued a €400m convertible bond on Tuesday to refinance its £2.2bn acquisition of Berendsen in the UK, which closed in September.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) has appointed leads to market its first covered bond since the Greek sovereign crisis. Meanwhile, Nationale-Nederlanden (NN Bank) has signalled its intention to press ahead with its debut deal following its recent roadshow.