Europe

Equity investors showed they were stepping up in numbers to invest in primary growth capital raises across Europe after Elkem, the Norwegian silicone manufacturer, raised $228m-equivalent and Greek bank Piraeus completed a €1.38bn raise to help clean up its non-performing loan book.

TechnipFMC has completed the first placing of Technip Energies stock since its spinoff on the Paris bourse in February, boosting the freefloat of the company.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, April 26. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Neoen, the French renewable energy company, completed a €600m rights issue at the start of April to help fund it until 2025. Its CFO, Louis-Mathieu Perrin, spoke to GlobalCapital about the deal and explained how green equity stories can still win investors’ attention, despite a recent cooling off in stock valuations.

HSBC has appointed Jean-Manuel Richier as co-head of global banking and head of investment banking in continental Europe after the previous holder of the position, Hubert Preschez, left for M&A boutique Messier and Associés.

German open-source software company Suse has announced its intention to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, joining the lengthy queue of European companies seeking to go public.

Italy mandated banks on Monday to lead a syndicated dollar dual tranche comprising new three and 30 year bonds as the sovereign continues to build out a curve in the currency following its return to the dollar market in 2019.

Pegasus, a new special purpose acquisition company focused on European financial services, has begun bookbuilding for its IPO on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with a target deal size of €500m.

Pepco, the retail conglomerate that owns Poundland, is seeking to list in Warsaw through an initial public offering.

Goldman Sachs extended a record run of US bank bond supply by visiting the euro market on Monday and raising €3.5bn of senior debt.

Nationwide Building Society plans to issue the first euro denominated covered bond from a UK issuer this year and the first since Brexit was concluded. The €500m deal comes after a series of successful Canadian covered bonds, but unlike them it has a much longer 20 year maturity.

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) was set to price the tightest covered bond of the year on Monday and the tightest Pfandbrief since late 2018, boding well for two follow-on transactions from Muenchener Hypothekenbank and Natixis Pfandbriefbank.