Europe

The market is poised for an overhaul of Europe’s securities rules, as part of the European Commission’s Capital Markets Union agenda. The UK has weighed in on the debate arguing for a stripped down process, a split prospectus, and no blackout period.

Metalloinvest’s $750m loan was no picnic for lending banks — the Russian miner self-arranged the deal and pushed hard on pricing — but this tenacious deal will not encourage a run of Russian deals soon, according to bankers.

The Republic of Zambia and Georgian firm Rustavi Azot kicked off roadshows this week, providing hope that a reopening of the CEEMEA sovereign and corporate markets — courtesy of Kazakhstan and Naspers — maintains momentum.

Verallia, the French glass bottle maker, started sounding investors on Thursday for an €860m-equivalent bond to finance its acquisition by alternative investment fund Apollo Global Management.

Ukrainian lender Privatbank failed in its first attempt to reprofile its 2016 bonds, which surprised some analysts. But not those inured to the numerous iterations of most Ukrainian restructuring exercises.

Ukrainian food producers are ramping up their push for internationally syndicated loans. One sunflower oil producer has signed a loan, another is in the market and a third food company has set its sights on a deal.

Santander Consumer Finance and Société Générale both opted for defensive three year senior unsecured trades on Thursday, the first euro benchmark FIG deals in three weeks.

A €600m ($663m) two year financing for China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) has been opened into syndication. Two French lenders are leading the deal and they have invited a select group of banks to participate.

Chair of the European Central Bank’s supervisory board Danièle Nouy has revealed deferred tax assets (DTAs) are equivalent to nearly half of Greek banks’ own funds.

Greek parliament gave bankers the result they were hoping for on Wednesday night, providing strong market conditions for two well established eurozone issuers — Commerzbank and BPCE — to issue five year bonds, taking a combined €1bn in the covered bond market. Sizable orderbooks and minimal new issue premiums proved that the market is very much in full operating mode.

Lingering uncertainty over Greece put a curb on credit spread movement on Wednesday, as a Greek parliamentary vote on austerity reforms failed to materialise in time to affect the July index options expiry.

Three block trades took place on Tuesday night, as Europe’s equity capital markets appear to be returning to normality after the stress of the Greek debt negotiations of the past few weeks.