Europe

It is commitments week in the European leveraged loan market this week, after a busy December packed with deals. Nine transactions are due to be priced, with several, including Morpho’s €2.1bn term loan, having already been completed.

Poland delivered a keenly priced green bond debut on Monday in the brief window before the US Federal Open Markets Committee meeting on Wednesday. Now attention in CEEMEA bonds has fallen upon next year's issuance pipeline.

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, equity capital markets are demonstrating that the first quarter of 2017 is likely to be busy, with two significant rights issues announced in the past few days.

Eurohold, the unrated Bulgarian insurance and leasing group, refined guidance on Tuesday for a €50m five year EMTN to 8.25% area and said indications of interest were in excess of €45m.

UniCredit's €13bn rights issue, which won rousing applause from investors on Tuesday when the share price rose 16% on its announcement, will be one of the centrepieces of what is likely to be a busier year for financial institutions ECM in 2017.

Russia is planning to launch its first renminbi denominated bond on the Moscow Exchange in early 2017.

Deutsche Telekom and Hellman & Friedman have sold a 6.5% stake in Scout24, the German classified advertising website company, for €224m, through an accelerated bookbuild launched on Monday night.

Nasdaq Clearing and Nasdaq Stockholm have both received fines after an investigation in Sweden found risk management and cyber security flaws.

Bats Europe is to add several benchmark indices spanning French, German, Italian and Swiss markets and expects these to support derivatives products in the future.

Euronext is looking for a chief executive officer for its Lisbon office, after Maria João Carioca answered a call from the Portuguese government to re-join Caixa Geral de Depósitos.

KfW tapped a December 2019 sterling line on Tuesday, printing £200m to round off the agency's strongest year in sterling since 2008.

European corporate bond players still have a chance to end the year on an upbeat note as market conditions improve ahead of the US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s Wednesday meeting, but windows for issuance to seize the opportunity in primary are limited.