Europe

Three of Turkey’s smaller financial institutions — Yapi Kredi Finansal Kiralama, the leasing arm of Yapi Kredi, Alternatif Bank (Abank) and Şekerbank — have come to the loan market with higher pricing than their bigger bank counterparts.

The scores are in. The BondMarker voters have delivered their verdict on Greece's long-awaited return to capital markets and on FMS Wertmanagement's five year dollar benchmark.

Barclays claimed the lowest-ever additional tier one (AT1) sterling coupon on Thursday, raising questions about how much tighter banks can go.

On Thursday night, in an otherwise barren week for equity block trades, General Atlantic, the US growth equity investment firm, launched the sale of a 2.1% stake in Axel Springer, the German publisher.

Deals in the leveraged finance market have grown increasingly aggressive in recent weeks, as a strong run of buyouts has seen leverage levels ramp up. Some in the market have identified the European Central Bank’s leveraged lending guidelines, due to come into effect in November, as fuelling the fire. Max Bower reports.

The shake-up of equity research provision expected to be caused by MiFID 2 could open up more space for new business models — including research paid for by the issuers, writes Jon Hay.

Supply of Russian Eurobonds is expected to remain healthy through to year end, with debt bankers this week mainly dismissing concerns that enhanced US sanctions and changes to local repo eligibility criteria could curb demand after the summer break.

Dairy producer Meggle has joined the ranks of green Schuldschein borrowers, launching a €50m triple tranche deal partly funded through green borrowing.

Gilt yields dropped on Thursday after the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-2 to hold the Bank Rate at 0.25% — a higher majority than the 5-3 in favour of holding at its last meeting in June. The more dovish result came after weeks of hawkish noises emanating from the central bank. Meanwhile, the Province of Alberta returned to the sterling market to tap its debut issue from earlier this year.

Lima Corporate, the Italian maker of orthopaedic implants, kept the euro high yield new issue market in motion with a floating rate bond deal, which, unusually, will be used to refinance the loans that funded its buyout by EQT from Ardian.

Siemens, the German machinery group, on Thursday broke its long silence on the timing of the IPO of its high margin healthcare technology business, which makes around 40% of its profits.

With the Bank of England’s Term Funding Scheme (TFS) coming to an end, UK financial institutions could look to increase their presence in the sterling bond market.