Europe

Even though central banks continue to regularly buy up to 40% of covered bonds, borrowers are remarkably stoic about spread prospects even after the European Central Bank’s purchase programme (CBPP3) has ended, delegates at the ECBC/Euromoney covered bond congress heard on Thursday.

The European leveraged loan deal pipeline for September keeps growing, now topping €7bn from more than 10 borrowers. The latest facility is for UK software firm Civica, which Partners Group has acquired from OMERS Private Equity.

Tech giant Amazon’s acquisition of American supermarket chain Whole Foods has caused much speculation since it was announced in June. Is it death knell for some traditional grocers? Will it revive others which may now be in Amazon’s sights?

GIMA TT, the tobacco packaging machinery division of IMA, has set the terms for its IPO on Borsa Italiana, which could value it at up to €1.1bn.

On Thursday RCI Banque, the financing arm of Renault, brought the corporate bond deal count to 10 for the week, but was the only benchmark issuer in the market on the day. Danish logistics company DSV debuted in euros with a sub-benchmark deal.

UK telecoms group Virgin Media was in the market for a £200m add-on of its 2024 receivable financing notes on Monday. By Wednesday, it had sold £450m of the deal, proving that demand is not restricted to the high yield debt market for euros, where three more deals were under way.

Russia’s Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) was making prudent use of lower funding costs on Thursday to buy back its more expensive outstanding dollar debt.

The Bank of Russia has added Credit Bank of Moscow to its list of systemically important banks (SIB), prompting a 2.5 cash point rally in the issuer’s subordinated bonds.

Denmark’s Jyske Bank was more than five times subscribed for first additional tier one (AT1) deal on Thursday, with a lack of supply from Europe’s largest banks allowing smaller ones a strong chance to raise bank capital.

Banco BPM and Banca Sella were looking to test the market’s appetite for subordinated debt from Italian banks on Thursday, opening books on new tier two transactions.

Bank of America was looking to issue floating rate notes in an undersupplied part of the curve on Thursday, fresh from a funding splurge in the dollar market.

Slovenia is once again borrowing in euros to fund a buy-back of its dollar debt as it looks to cut its liabilities in the currency. This is the borrower’s sixth such transaction over the course of two years.