Europe

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse have submitted their merger plans to European competition regulators, in the hopes of wrapping up the deal in the first half of 2017.

The European Investment Bank this week cut the ribbon on the post-summer market for large dollar benchmarks, although there were more than a few nervous glances ahead to this Friday’s Jackson Hole speech by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.

Loan bankers expect more activity from Russian borrowers in the final months of the year, as Norilsk Nickel prepares to come to the market and rumours circulate of a large M&A financing.

Just over a month has passed since the attempted coup in Turkey. With a backlog of issuance from the country sitting in the pipeline, GlobalCapital discussed the investment case with four London-based fund managers.

Blockchain initiatives in financial markets came to the fore this week, with a group of banks teaming up to apply the technology to making payments and settling transactions, while a survey of 25 financial exchanges found that most of them are testing distributed ledger technology.

Hemso Fastighets and Galp Gas Natural Distribuiçao on Thursday mandated banks to issue bonds during the first two weeks of September.

Fisch Asset management, the boutique asset manager, has made a pair of appointments in its convertible bond team.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia sold on Thursday the longest dated benchmark ever from a German state, in a move which may encourage other Laender to follow suit.

The gap to repay a €2.7bn bridge facility that supports HeidelbergCement's purchase of Italcementi is set to close once the former cashes in the sale of its West Virginia factory.

Gilt-edged market makers and investors are calling for the UK Debt Management Office to sell a long dated conventional syndication in October and follow it with an index-linked deal in November.

Poland became the first European country to issue a Panda bond on Thursday, printing a landmark Rmb3bn ($451m) deal. The depreciating renminbi was not enough to put off foreign investors, while the yield pick-up over other sovereign bonds helped ensure a strong order book. Addison Gong reports.

This week’s covered bond supply has already exceeded the whole of July’s and its likely there will be more deals next week as issuers grab cheap funding before a potential spread widening.