Europe

Euro benchmark covered bond year-to-date supply is the lowest in the last decade as a series of macro events, combined with banks’ increasing focus on bail-in, have kept activity to a minimum.

Ukrainian agriculture firms are reaping deals from the syndicated loan market with Kernel back for its third deal of the year and a $90m loan for grain and oilseed firm, Nibulon, in the market.

Closely following Markit’s launch of a foreign exchange trade confirmation service, the company has agreed to acquire DealHub, a provider of FX trade processing and trading services.

Portuguese paper maker Portucel Soporcel on Monday said in a notice filed with the Luxembourg exchange that it will offer, in September, its second high yield bond to repay part of its 2013 notes.

Sanne, the corporate administration provider, spent £7m on transaction costs for its initial public offering in March, the firm said in its half year results.

UK infrastructure investment firm, John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) has signed a £180m revolving credit facility with two new lenders.

Investors’ reaction to the news that Italy will follow Germany in subordinating senior bondholders to corporate deposits has been made difficult to judge by a wider sell-off in FIG bonds.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation had to brave turbulent conditions on Friday to wrap up a flurry of dollar benchmarks from public sector issuers this week.

ING Bank has updated its prospectus for the second time this year enabling it to issue soft bullet covered bonds. Analysts at ABN research believe this could be a precursor to a hard to soft bullet exchange.

HSBC has been mandated as the sole offshore RMB concentration bank for LME Clear, clearing house for the London Metal Exchange (LME), which accepted the offshore renminbi (CNH) as eligible cash collateral earlier this month. The bank has told GlobalRMB that the initiative shows the growing prominence of RMB in commodities markets.

August is on course to become 2015’s busiest month for bank medium term note issuance in sterling, as cash rich investors are drawn to positive spreads over quarterly Libor.

Pohjola Bank’s next capital markets issue will likely be a covered bond, meaning investors waiting for a euro tier two deal scheduled for June may have even longer to wait.