Europe

BNP Paribas issued the first French senior non-preferred deal in floating rate format on Wednesday and enjoyed a strong reception in a move that could well spur compatriot banks to follow. Callable French senior non-preferred deals are, however, still some way off, said bankers.

Spie, the French technical services provider, brought the first new leveraged buy-out financing in the euro high yield bond market for three months this week with a €600m seven year senior unsecured bond.

Wells Fargo Asset Management has hired a new portfolio manager in its ECM Asset Management subsidiary.

Akbank’s more generous pricing seems to have paid off with banks lining up to refinance its syndicated loan.

The IPO market in Europe continues apace, with the announcement of two more sizeable flotations so far this week. Another, smaller IPO in Amsterdam has reached a successful conclusion.

Wednesday’s Dutch general election has not put the brakes on corporate bond issuance as it was expected to, probably because investors are expecting a fragmented result ending in a coalition, rather than a market-unfriendly all out vote for the far right.

Bain Capital has completed its second block trade of shares in Maisons du Monde, the French furniture retailer, since its IPO in 2016.

Shares in Amundi, the French asset manager, closed 4% lower on Tuesday after it announced the terms for its €1.4bn rights issue to partly finance its takeover of Pioneer Investments, the asset management division of UniCredit, for €3.5bn.

Former regional head of BNP Paribas’ global markets in the Iberia region, Joe Lovrics, has joined Citi as head of its Spain and Portugal markets franchises.

Dutch company Wolters Kluwer printed a €500m 10 year trade almost flat to its curve on Tuesday, demonstrating just how low returns are from debt issued by firms in core European countries.

The Scottish city of Aberdeen may be long past its 1980s heyday — when it was the hub of the burgeoning North Sea oil industry and its football team was one of the most feared in Europe — but it could soon find itself being a useful capital markets bellwether for the latest constitutional crisis to hit the UK.

Legal & General (L&G) issued its first tier two bond in dollars on Tuesday enjoying “extremely strong execution”, suggesting there is scope for further supply.