Europe

The renaissance of renewable energy companies in the equity capital markets grew on Monday with the IPO of GreenVolt, the Portuguese biomass energy company, which is set to wrap up its listing on the Lisbon stock exchange.

Commodities company Trafigura’s Singapore arm is making its annual return to the Asian loan market, this time opting for a sustainability-linked facility.

Activity in the recruitment market for sustainable capital markets experts has ticked up this year, as banks looking to staff up in this area see a small but growing talent pool to tap. A recent hire by Santander in London is a good example.

Essentra, the UK speciality fibres and plastics maker, has closed a US private placement deal at $250m.

KfW has had a strong start to 2021, raising over €50bn in the first six months of the year — around two thirds of its target. The agency will face new challenges in the latter half of the year, particularly in the form of the European Union’s colossal Next Generation funding programme. But treasurer Tim Armbruster, and head of capital markets Petra Wehlert are confident they can navigate the new landscape.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes in early July.

Shares in Wise, the UK fintech group, had traded up more than 22% by Friday afternoon compared to the price at which it completed the first ever direct listing by a technology unicorn on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Equity bankers hailed the transaction as an alternative route to going public when the IPO market is difficult but the list of companies that could do such a deal is short, writes Aidan Gregory.

Russian IPOs have long been beset by the political turmoil that surrounds their country’s relationship with the US. Many a deal has been sunk by US-Russia tension, particularly when sanctions are imposed by the former.

Covered bond supply is likely to remain anaemic over the second half of this year, with many analysts sharply downgrading their forecasts. As cheap central bank financing is expected to remain in place well into next year and deposits will probably remain high, an improvement in supply may be slow in coming.

The European Union is expected to come to the market next week with a dual tranche deal comprising bonds for both its Next Generation EU (NGEU) and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSFM) programmes.

France stuck to its approach of engaging with investors during bookbuilding to persuade them not to inflate orders for its second syndication in a row this week, when the sovereign brought a new 30 year OAT to the market.

With private equity-backed mergers and acquisitions hitting record levels in Europe, bankers have their tails up as they jostle for the most lucrative fee opportunities, writes David Rothnie.