Europe

Caixa Geral de Depósitos is expecting to issue a new senior deal for the minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in the second half of the year, having been lifted to investment grade by Moody’s last month.

The Bankers Investment Trust, a London-listed investment trust which traces its origins back to 1888, has sold a £74.5m-equivalent private placement. While there are slim pickings for PP investors looking to lend to financial institutions in Europe, investment trusts have provided a steady stream of opportunities.

The UK’s Municipal Bonds Agency is not going anywhere. Despite a late 2020 curve ball in the form of a 100bp cut to the UK’s Public Works Loan Board lending rate, which undermined the MBA's ability to raise competitive bond market funding on behalf of local councils, the agency has a pipeline of deals coming together, some of which will carry ESG labels for the first time.

Sports teams could be among the Covid-battered industries looking to tap the capital markets later this year and next, bankers believe, as Italy’s elite Juventus Football Club prepares for a €400m rights issue to repair its finances.

The Schuldschein market is counting on a late summer pick-up in issuance to make up for a barren first half of the year. If deals do not pick up, the market could reach only €14bn of issuance in 2021, half its volume in 2017.

Lazard has hired a former Citigroup banker to run its equity capital markets advisory practice for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Credit Suisse is adding to its fintech coverage with the appointment of Orazio Tarda as global head of the sector in London. Tarda was previously global head of fintech at HSBC.

Private placements are expected to make up the bulk of Swedish covered bond paper throughout the latter half of 2021 and, with the Nordic summer holiday period coming to end, issuance from the region is expected to kick off ahead of the eurozone.

Credit investors are pleased with how banks performed in the EU stress test, though the sector lost more capital on average than it did in the previous exercise in 2018. The market was even sanguine about Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which will be able to stick to its ‘fallback’ plan despite losing all its capital under the adverse scenario.

Barclays has proven the financial institutions bond market is still open for business in early August, after attracting strong demand on Monday for a large euro senior deal.

Eurizon, the asset management business owned by Intesa Sanpaolo, has hired Federica Calvetti from Deutsche Bank to lead its ESG and strategic activism team in Milan.

Bank of America has hired Uday Malhotra back from Goldman Sachs as head of leveraged finance origination in EMEA in London, while Eddie Martin, a managing director in the division, is relocating to the US.