Europe

ABN Amro returned to the additional tier one (AT1) market on Wednesday for the first time since its debut in September 2015 but, similar to Santander the day before, the Dutch bank was unable to tighten pricing sharply from its starting point.

Varta AG, the German maker of micro-batteries for hearing aids and wireless headphones, has resurrected its plans for an IPO, after posting record earnings in the first half of 2017.

Italian telecoms firm Wind is expected to return to the high yield bond and leveraged loan market to refinance debt in the coming weeks, with two investors expecting the combined volume of financing to be about €10bn.

Equity capital markets in Europe are enjoying a steady flow of new deals, including three new convertible bond issues so far this week.

Corporate bond spreads have been on a steady grind tighter for around six months. Despite geopolitical surprises and much debate around interest rate rises and tapering of quantitative easing, the market has rarely been knocked off its path. But is now the time to worry more?

Deutsche Börse has linked with SmartStream RDU for a systematic internaliser (SI) registration system, while Ullink has released a platform easing SI pre-trade transparency and request-for-quote (RFQ) order management issues.

Equity derivatives experts do not expect equity volatility to pick up from its current low level any time soon. Some of the potential political hurdles have been overcome and some see little to trouble them until the Italian elections in the second quarter of next year.

Citi has been fined $550,000 for data reporting violations on its internal swap contracts.

Finnvera will on Wednesday enter a searing market for three year dollars, following a similar trade from Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten that rounded off the Dutch agency’s dollar benchmark funding for the year.

One borrower took advantage of an excellent backdrop to scoop up its first green funding in euros at an attractive level on Tuesday, while a second issuer is lining up to follow suit in dollars.

Genuine Parts Company (GPC) will issue $2bn of bonds and loans and ramp up the size of an existing revolver to fund its purchase of France’s Alliance Automotive Group (AAG) when it buys the auto parts wholesaler from private equity towards the end of this year.

Deutsche Wohnen, one of the biggest listed German residential property companies, added its name to the string of equity-linked deals in Europe this month on Tuesday when it printed an €800m eight year note to finance a tender offer for a previous convertible bond, due in 2021.