Europe

SoLocal Group, the French marketing services provider, has completed its €400m rights issue, which involved a debt-for-equity swap.

Shipping loans are already a problem asset class for many banks, but lenders are risking further problems by failing to do proper due diligence on how the shipping fleet will cope with decarbonisation, experts believe.

The scores are in. See how market participants rated EFSF's dual tranche, the UK's £2bn inflation linked note and Spain's €5bn 2033 transaction.

The European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) said it will begin meetings with national authorities and stakeholders in India and Malaysia to consider whether covered bonds could play a role in their economies.

Covered bond primary supply is likely to improve, but will not be enough to sate investor appetite. With dealer inventories low, the technical squeeze will tighten, even as an unwinding of the flight to safety bid caused Bunds to fall sharply on Friday.

Cerba Healthcare has scheduled the bank meeting for its much anticipated buyout loan package for Tuesday.

Another piece in the pre-Easter IPO jigsaw was revealed on Friday morning when UniEuro, the Italian retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, began investor education for its IPO on Borsa Italiana.

Nyrstar, the Belgian zinc smelting company, on Friday priced a single-B rated €400m high yield bond, and has launched a tender offer to buy back a €120m 2018 convertible bond.

Goldman Sachs walked away from the euro market with €2bn of floating rate senior paper on Friday, showing its European peers that FRN investors are even there to support deals in the middle of the maturity curve.

The UK’s IPO market is likely to go through its biggest shake-up for a generation later this year, when the Financial Conduct Authority introduces new rules — but the effects may not be those the regulator intends, writes Jon Hay.

BASF launched an innovative $600m bond with warrants on Thursday that may go some way to solving some of the disadvantages of the equity-neutral structure that has become popular with investment grade CB issuers.

Corporate borrowers are taking advantage of rising political worry among investors by issuing short dated floating rate notes in euros which stand a good chance of bearing negative yields, write Michael Turner, Ross Lancaster and Jon Hay.