Europe

Aurora Shipping has signed a €200m credit facility with two lenders to finance four new-build vessels.

Italian investment manager Anthilia Capital Partners expects to close a €230m fund to buy domestic corporate minibonds early in February, a move that could entice players outside Italy to participate.

As a decision on whether Novo Banco has triggered a government intervention credit event heads to external review after weeks of ISDA Determinations Committee wrangling, some market participants are worried that a 'no' will reduce the value of financial credit default swaps, while others warn that a European-only result could open a rift with US contracts.

Investors have taken up the vast majority of the shares offered by RPC Group, the plastic packaging maker, in a £233m rights issue it launched last month.

A corporate bond syndicate banker has been made redundant by Lloyds Bank.

Italian energy company Enel has signed a financing agreement with Bank of China, which will exchange a $1bn credit line for Chinese access to Enel's future projects.

Gaelectric, an Irish renewable energy developer, has become the first Irish company to issue a green bond, with a €10m offering open to wealthy retail investors.

ChemChina is in the early bird stage of syndication for its KraussMaffei acquisition loan and is targeting relationship banks, according to a banker familiar with the deal. Commitments are due around the end of the month.

Britain's banking market is a frenzy of new arrivals and challengers to the old order. The Bank of England even set up a New Banks Unit this week to welcome them all. But for most of history, the trend has run in the opposite direction.

Southern European lenders are back on the defensive as a European Central Bank inspection of non-performing loans drives a pronounced sell-off in equities and subordinated debt.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier had been expected to open books for the first covered bond of the week on Wednesday but postponed the deal as market conditions deteriorated. Apart from the unfortunate timing, rival bankers said the long tenor was the wrong choice for the weak market.

Central and eastern European borrowers gathered in Vienna this week for Euromoney’s Central & Eastern Europe Conference and are not short of plans for the capital markets this year.