Europe

Option premiums have been very high in sterling pairs for some time, but analysts are at odds over whether maturities before the United Kingdom's referendum on European Union membership are correctly priced.

Schaeffler Holdings has launched tonight the sale of the family holding company’s last non-voting shares in Schaeffler, the German bearings maker which floated in October. It is likely to be the only block trade in the stock for the foreseeable future.

Technogym, the Italian company that is one of the world’s leading makers of gym equipment, launched an IPO on Monday, on the same day that its private equity backer Arle Capital also set out to float Parques Reunidos in Spain (see Syndicated Loans section).

Eranove, an electricity and water company that operates in several west African countries, has published its document de base for a Paris IPO that will raise €200m of new capital and may also involve a secondary selldown.

LeasePlan Corp, the Dutch car finance bank that recently struggled through tough bond market conditions to price a €1.55bn subordinated high yield deal to finance its takeover by a group of institutional investors, had a very different experience on Monday when its first senior bond issue since the takeover was a huge hit with investors.

AkzoNobel, the Dutch paints, coatings and chemicals company, issued a €500m 10 year bond last Friday that achieved a deeply negative new issue premium, as investors piled in ahead of the European Central Bank’s expected corporate bond buying programme.

The remarkable conditions in Europe’s corporate bond market since the European Central Bank trained its quantitative easing firehose on the market were clear again today when Federal Express, the US deliveries group, raised €3bn to finance its purchase of Dutch peer TNT Express.

The UK Debt Management Office kicks off its 2016-17 funding programme by auctioning £5.25bn of debt this week, in what will be the first test of a mechanism it has introduced to enhance Gilt price discovery.

Parque Reunidos, the leisure parks operator, on Monday announced what it hopes will be the largest Spanish IPO for over a year, in a bid to reduce debt and begin to make an exit for private equity owner Arle Capital.

Natural gas provider Gasum enlisted just two banks to provide a €640m credit facility, part of which will refinance a recent acquisition by the group.

Telekom Slovenia, a firm downgraded four times in the last five years, has secured a €300m loan to refinance a bond, the move will strengthen its Ba2 rating according to Moody’s.

KA Finanz, the wind down entity formally known as Kommunalkredit Austria, has signalled its intention to issue covered bonds.