Europe

Romania is the economic growth star of Europe. Tax relief and VAT cuts have stimulated consumption and investment is strong. Wages are rising fast, but Romania remains competitive. With labour costs a fifth of the EU average, it should be — but that statistic shows how big a hill the country has to climb.

With today’s upcoming Brexit speech by the British prime minister likely to throw up more doubts about London’s future as a financial centre, Parisian financial lobby Europlace says France’s message is clear: your business, including in renminbi, is welcome.

Lone Star has made its first sale of stock in Forterra, the UK brickmaker, since its IPO last April. The block trade was doubly unusual, in being done on Friday evening and not being led by the IPO bookrunners.

Hapag-Lloyd on Monday began roadshowing a sub benchmark and triple-C rated bond to European high yield investors.

AlzChem, the German speciality chemicals company, is preparing an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange led by Société Générale and Baader Bank as global coordinators.

The African Development Bank has announced that it will come to market for its second ever euro syndication.

The Autonomous Community of Madrid has hit the long end of the curve with a 20 year private placement for its first deal of 2017.

German real estate company LEG Immobilien was alone in the euro market on Monday as it made its debut senior bond transaction with a €500m no-grow seven year.

GlobalCapital is preparing to decide its Equity Capital Markets Awards for 2016, and invites market participants to have their say on who should win them.

Micro Focus, a UK software firm, is poised to offer up $1bn-equivalent in euros to the European leveraged loan market as it looks to close its reverse merger with Hewlett Packard’s software business.

Belgium will become the third sovereign in 2017 to issue a benchmark, mandating four banks on Monday to sell a euro bond.

Deutsche Bank attracted a healthy €3.25bn order book on Monday for the first German senior trade under a revised German Banking Act, as fears began to rise about the potential terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union.