Europe

A Goldman Sachs managing director is taking up a new job as head of cross-asset quantitative trading at Barclays.

On Wednesday evening, Indigo Partners, the private equity group, came to market to offload its entire 18.7% stake in Wizz Air Holdings, the London-listed Hungarian low-cost airline, through an accelerated bookbuild that was covered inside an hour.

China Three Gorges Corp, the state-owned hydropower company, brought its first euro denominated green bond on Wednesday. The €650m seven year deal came a year after the company issued its first green bond in remnimbi.

Lagardère, the French media group, targeted investors’ seven-year sweet spot with its €300m no-grow deal announced at the same time as an investor update call on Tuesday. The issuer was rewarded with a €1bn-plus order book the following day.

BNP Paribas and Société Générale sold a chunk of their holding in Euronext, the European stock exchange operator, through an accelerated bookbuild on Tuesday night.

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti sold its first syndicated bond in over two years on Wednesday, returning to capital markets at a time when Italy’s political future looks the rosiest it has for months.

A sterling transaction for US firm AT&T showed little sign of the stresses the UK is under after the telecoms company launched a £1bn September 2037 bond. The trade came with a negligible new issue premium.

La Banque Postale (LBP) attracted strong demand for its 10 year covered bond issued on Wednesday and priced the deal flat to where compatriot Crédit Agricole’s 10 year was trading in the secondary market.

Vimpelcom raised $1.5bn at its holding company level on Tuesday, as it looks to complete its transition into a more streamlined, western-looking borrowing entity. Though it appears to be looking to shake off its Russian associations, investors say the risk is still the same.

Deutsche Hypo managed to attract only a just subscribed order book for its €500m eight year covered bond this week, despite paying an attractive new issue premium. Bankers on the deal dismissed concern that uncertainty over the issuer’s future ownership had worried investors and blamed market conditions instead.

Buyers of sterling high yield bonds were set to show what they make of the June 8 elections in the UK, and the country's economic landscape on Tuesday, as online grocer Ocado priced the first all-round domestic deal since the vote.

EU finance ministers aim to agree on Friday on the creation of the non-preferred senior asset class, as proposed last November by the European Commission to ensure a uniform implementation Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity requirements.