Europe

Shares in Gestamp Automoción and Banca Farmafactoring, which had performed poorly on their first day of trading after their IPOs on Friday April 7, steadied this week, providing relief to equity capital markets bankers anxious to avoid poorly performing deals putting off investors.

Telenor, the Norwegian telecoms company, has sold a 4% stake in Veon, the Russian telco formerly called VimpelCom, for $262.5m through a block trade.

Unédic and Austria have announced that they will sell euro benchmarks at the long end of the curve on Tuesday.

The Croatian government has followed up on its new law, designed to handle Agrokor’s debt crisis, by appointing an “emergency management commissioner” and overriding plans for the restructuring drawn up by creditors.

The UK's National Health Service is engaging in exploratory discussions in a drive to raise capital from private sources to finance “much needed” capital developments at a time when officials say it does not expect to receive additional government funding.

Corporate borrowers have taken their foot off the gas after weeks of frenetic issuance, though bankers expect a resurrection of the busy schedule once the Easter break is over.

Eurozone quantitative easing increases bond prices in the inter-dealer market and is also “likely” to hit liquidity, according to research from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The findings also suggest that timing QE asset purchases depending on market conditions could benefit the policy as a whole.

The European Commission is expected to outline plans for a covered bond framework in June, delegates at the European Covered Bond Council’s (ECBC) plenary session heard last week.

French finance minister Michel Sapin has warned British officials that London will lose its euro denominated derivatives business after leaving the European Union, saying that the bloc must be “masters” on rules that apply to its currency.

Potential high yield bond issuance for this week shot up above €2.4bn with a new €1bn offering from Grifols, the plasma medicine manufacturer based in Barcelona, which is closing the last leg of its debt refinancing.

Nationwide Building Society got a “better than expected” result for a €750m fixed rate six year senior unsecured deal which it issued on Monday.

Intesa Sanpaolo issued a €1.5bn five year floating rate note on Monday following a successful deal in the format for BBVA last week and also paid close to no new issue premium.