Europe

Global Fashion Group, the Frankfurt-listed online fashion retailer focused on emerging markets, has successfully issued its debut convertible bond, despite volatility caused by a selloff of technology stocks in the United States.

Barclays won plaudits for steering a 21 non-call 20 tier two into an extremely tight pricing level this week, following earlier examples from the large French banks. It accompanied its deal with the sale of some long dated senior paper.

The City of London Investment Trust, the UK listed equity investor, has sold £30m of 25-year private placements.

Pablo de Ramón-Laca is director general of the treasury and financial policy at Spain's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. That places him in charge of the world's ninth largest sovereign debt stock, according to S&P data, for a country pummelled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Spain has the second highest number of cases in the EU and the seventh highest in the world. But even that is not the full story of the pandemic's impact.

The European Central Bank managed to buy more covered bonds on a net basis in February than it did January, but the asset class fell as a proportion of its total asset purchases. In the absence of fresh supply, it was forced to source paper in the secondary market, but at a markedly lower pace than before.

The UK’s Budget on Wednesday is likely to go down as the greenest ever, but it still left sustainable finance advocates disappointed, as Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, failed to give clarity on vital programmes and spending, at the beginning of a decade in which the country will have to make vital investments towards achieving its ambition of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Italy took orders of over €80bn for its first green BTP on Wednesday to become the latest sovereign to enter the green bond market. Germany was also in market, raising €3bn with its first 15 year deal via auction.

The UK Debt Management Office announced its borrowing remit for its 2021/2022 fiscal year on Wednesday, following the chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak's budget speech, which includes plans to sell a debut green Gilt in the summer with another later in the year. A new UK infrastructure bank, which will use debt and equity capital was also made official in the budget.

German commercial real estate company DIC Asset has launched its second Schuldschein, for an initial target of €100m, according to a term sheet distributed to investors. The debt’s margins will be tied to the proportion of green assets the borrower has on its balance sheet. Most notably, there is a ‘fast track’ settlement date for banks needing to secure assets before an ECB funding deadline that falls at the end of this month.

Equity capital market participants cheered the publication on Wednesday of former EU commissioner Jonathan Hill's review of London listing rules. The report, written on behalf of the UK Treasury, recommended sweeping changes in order to attract more companies to the London Stock Exchange. On Thursday, Deliveroo, the food delivery company, announced it would be listing in London.

Xtrion, the majority shareholder of Belgian semi-conductor company Melexis, sold 1.4m shares in Melexis on Tuesday night. The sale was part of an overall 1.7m package sold to investors in order to increase the Belgian firm's freefloat in the hope that it will join the country's benchmark stock indices.

SR Boligkreditt issued its largest and longest covered bond on Wednesday, at the tightest spread it has achieved in more than three years, slightly inside fair value.