Europe

Four banks have teamed up with law firm Simmons & Simmons to introduce market standard documentation for use in listed and unlisted repackaging transactions, in a move that they hope will ease hedging counterparty concerns for investors and help drive activity in this part of the market.

Worries that the UK could lose access to the single market are already largely priced in, said SSA bankers, as Moody's warned that it could downgrade the sovereign if access is not part of a deal with the European Union.

Statoil broke out of the stupour of public holidays on Wednesday with a dual tranche offering that kept up investors’ supply of 20 year paper.

LCH has outlined plans to deepen its dominance of the interest rate derivatives market, by launching a centralised service for non-cleared trades.

On Wednesday, UK financial software firm Misys pulled the $1.5bn refinancing it had been marketing as part of its planned IPO, having dropped the share sale last week.

An online repository of resources for green bond issuers, including a pair of document templates to help guide new entrants, has gone live.

The newly established mortgage issuing subsidiary of Nordea Bank has mandated leads to roadshow its first deal from its Finnish programme.

Standard Chartered’s decision to extend its $750m 6.409% legacy tier one past its first call date should give the bank some cheap capital over the next 10 years, but the move has refocused investors’ attentions on the risks involved in similarly structured bonds.

Banks are preparing finance packages for the leveraged buyout of Romanian retail chain Profi, with the loans likely to price almost as tightly as deals from western Europes, according to one banker.

Gazprom has picked four banks to arrange a roadshow as bankers debated whether the state controlled giant is paying up or cashing in by planning a bond in euros.

The hype in the European leveraged finance markets runs that the European Central Bank and Bank of England have made riskier assets irresistible to investors, and that fund managers are beginning to embrace even aggressive dividend deals and payment-in-kind bonds. Don’t believe it.

On Wednesday morning, Sirius Minerals, the company seeking to build a new potash mine in North Yorkshire, launched a bold $940m equity capital increase and convertible bond to finance stage one of the project.