Europe

Turkiye Is Bankasi (Isbank) has had its mortgage covered bond programme signed off with the Turkish regulator and this week had the programme rated by Moody’s.

The potential sale of Toshiba’s multibillion dollar flash memory arm is drumming up interest among banks that are looking for opportunities to finance the bidders. Depending on the outcome of the sale, the transaction could result in big business for European, Taiwanese and Japanese lenders, said market observers. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Misys has tinkered with the $5.35bn-equivalent loan package backing its acquisition of Canadian competitor D+H, with a banker on the deal saying the basis swap between dollars and euros was especially attractive to the issuer.

Ukrainian poultry producer MHP emerged with pricing for only the second corporate Eurobond from the country on over three years on Thursday morning.

Santander UK quickly built a well oversubscribed order book for its €1bn sterling covered bond on Thursday. The deal was set to be priced with a minimal concession at a favourable level versus where it might have been issued in euros, boding well for Royal Bank of Scotland’s forthcoming transaction.

Sweden’s Hoist Kredit could test the euro market for a new tier two offering in the coming weeks, as it aims to improve its capital structure through a number of capital markets transactions.

Deutsche Bank’s cost cutting and capital raising efforts are starting to pay off, with the bank dragging itself to profitability in the first quarter after full-year losses of €1.4bn in 2016. However, net revenues were down €800m year on year, and the shares dipped after the announcement on Thursday.

JP Morgan has created a new job that it hopes will enable it to win more investment banking business from family owners of companies and entrepreneurs, and one of its senior bankers is returning to the bank to fill the post.

Shares in Lonza, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, closed 3.8% higher on Wednesday after it launched its Sfr2.25bn rights issue to partly finance its acquisition of Capsugel from KKR, having secured approval from its shareholders at its annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Investors piled into a €300m bond issue for Brussels Airport on Wednesday, leaving syndicate bankers brimming with frustration that more issuers had not exploited this week's strong market.

Elation in the euro markets after the first round of the French presidential election at the weekend continues to wash over the public sector bond markets, with the Province of Quebec selling its largest ever benchmark in the currency and Spain printing €5bn of inflation-linked paper.

Credit Suisse shares closed 2.7% higher on Wednesday after the bank confirmed what had been widely expected: it will conduct its second rights issue in 18 months, and scrap its plan to float its Swiss Universal Bank.