Europe

A second European issuer in as many working days has pulled back from the corporate bond market, blaming challenging market conditions.

Georgia Healthcare Group launched on Monday its initial public offering on London’s main market, as it aims to follow in the footsteps of its sole owner, Bank of Georgia, which is already listed there.

Italy has sparked a busy week for the eurozone periphery by cutting its borrowing costs at an auction of short term debt.

Caisse Francaise De Financement Local (Caffil) has mandated leads for seven year covered bond, its fifth euro benchmark of the year. The announcement caused dealers to mark French covered bonds a little wider and suggested that, while market conditions have improved from last week, they are still a bit shaky.

Bank of Ireland returned to the euro covered bond market for the third time this year to raise €750m on a comfortably oversubscribed book. Though cheap by historical standards, the hefty new issue premium left some unconvinced about the market outlook.

Nordea Finland returned to the covered bond market on Monday to issue a €1.25bn seven year. In contrast to other recent deals, the transaction attracted solid demand of over €2bn from a wide range of investors and sets the stage for follow-on issuance.

Polish insurer Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń (PZU) has picked banks for a tap of a 2019 euro transaction.

Private equity firm Permira is merging German debt collector Garfunkelux, which it acquired in July, with British peer Lowell Group — a deal that could play the ‘market opener’ role bankers and investors have awaited since September.

Barclays has announced that it has promoted its former head of FIG EMEA to the post of chief strategy officer at the investment bank.

The Russia and Ukraine finance ministers discussed the latter’s Eurobond restructuring agreement at the IMF meetings in Peru. But neither seems willing to ask the IMF to rule on the status of a $3bn Ukrainian Eurobond sold to Russia, said analysts.

Landsbankinn was set to walk away with €300m of three year money on Monday, but bankers said investor confidence even after a stronger week of trading remains low.

Nederlandse Gasunie closed a €300m no-grow floater on Friday, attracting an order book of around €550m for the three year notes.