Europe

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg has printed the first widely distributed euro benchmark in covered bonds since early June. Rival bankers said the deal proves that European investors are receptive to the right trade, but the Greek storm is not over yet and may mean that issuance windows are limited.

Aroundtown Property Holdings, the German-focused property company, raised €320m on Monday with a capital increase conducted as an intraday accelerated bookbuild, that was really its IPO.

US speciality chemical products holding company Platform will buy UK firm Alent for £1.35bn using a $1.9bn bridge loan from Credit Suisse.

Banque de France (BdF) is working with the financial sector to ready the market for the China International Payment System (CIPS) launch later this year, and has told GlobalRMB that the progress of the RMB means that inclusion in the IMF's SDR basket is simply a matter of "when and how".

Belarusbank, the largest commercial bank in Belarus, has signed a €203m loan that one of its lenders said was the biggest ever in the Belarusian banking sector.

UK banks will find it harder to game leverage ratios as regulators plan to introduce stricter disclosure rules than those in Europe.

After announcing its intention to repurchase all of its series 7 and series 8 2017 covered bonds, Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) has set the purchase price on the notes. It is hoping to reduce its liabilities and close its covered bond programme following a successful buyback in March.

Friday was a great day for Flow Traders to make its stockmarket debut. You might almost think they were traders. The Euro Stoxx 50 index opened 1.6% up as hopes rose of a debt deal for Greece, and doubled that gain by the afternoon. With that wind in its sails, Flow Traders zoomed up 14%.

Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) intends to buy back all of its covered bonds due 2017 which are validly tendered, and was due to set the purchase price on Friday afternoon.

Caisse Française de Financement Local proved the resilience of the covered bond market on Thursday by printing the first euro deal from a European issuer in three weeks. The defensive three year tenor was exactly what the market needed, according to rival bankers, and paves the way for more short-dated euro issuance.

The Austrian subsidiary of Steinhoff International, the South African furniture retailer, has issued an inaugural Schuldschein for €650m, the second largest of the year.

The Bank of Scotland has issued a consent solicitation requesting a switch from hard bullet to 12 month extendable soft bullet maturities for seven of its benchmark deals.