Europe

Bellevue Asset Management, the Anglo-Swiss asset manager focused on biotechnology, has completed the flotation of BB Healthcare Trust, its new long-only investment trust focused on global healthcare stocks.

Bankers and investors are still complaining about the lack of single-B rated issuers in the European high yield market this year, but 2017 will bring little relief, Fitch said on Wednesday.

National Australia Bank has opened books for its second dollar-denominated covered bond of the year and the third in dollars from Australia this year.

Swedbank became the third non-UK issuer to launch a sterling covered bond since September, when it launched a rare five year on Wednesday. The high number of UK bank sterling redemptions that are unlikely to be refinanced next year suggests sterling investors will be cash rich and receptive to similar supply.

The European Central Bank will extend its quantitative easing programme “most likely until the end of next year”, according to S&P, a greater extension than the additional six months that many market participants are anticipating.

The 28 finance ministers of the European Union are expected to approve the extension of the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) on December 6.

Royal Bank of Scotland submitted a revised capital plan after failing the Bank of England’s 2016 stress test this week, with the UK lender’s large potential misconduct fines playing an important role in its poor test performance.

The Italian referendum on December 4 has been lurking in SSA bankers' diaries as a dangerous risk event but, on Tuesday, rumours of enhanced European Central Bank support led to a rally in Italian government paper.

Czech telcoms firm Ceska Telekomunikacni Infrastruktura (CETIN) attempted to throw off any emerging markets tag it bears on Tuesday, printing a €625m trade after a long marketing period tailored to investment grade funds in western Europe, according to two bankers on the deal.

It was all about the crossover trade this week in emerging market bonds. Borrowers located in EM countries, but appealing to buyers of western European credit and rates products have left EM funds have little to play with in the primary markets

In another sign of the cautious mood gripping the IPO market in Western Europe, Varta AG, the German microbatteries maker, has called off its €150m Frankfurt IPO. Yet the Nordic market continues to show its resilience, as three successful flotations reach their conclusion this week.

Investment grade corporate bond issuance kept up a steady pace this week, as borrowers took advantage of one of 2016’s last clear weeks for issuance. But far from being putt off by new issue premiums growing plump as turkeys in a market worried about interest rate risk, issuers know conditions could well be worse in the new year.