Europe

UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB, is expected to open order books for a 10 year benchmark on Tuesday. With swap yields currently just positive, the deal has a slim chance of offering a positive return.

Bankers do not expect to a resurgence of primary covered bond supply in March with banks expected to focus on regulatory issuance. ECB covered bond purchase data was due on Monday afternoon, with market participants eager to see if the central bank increased its buying to contain the recent rise in yields at the long end of the curve.

European banks have been busy in the credit markets in 2021, despite fears that rising deposits and cheap central bank money would eat away at issuance volumes. Sales have been boosted by a sharper focus on senior debt and a pivot towards dollar transactions.

Fix Price, the discount Russian retailer, priced its London and Moscow IPO on Thursday after managing to secure some of the world’s highest quality investors as cornerstones at the beginning of the week.

Trustpilot, the global review platform, has announced plans for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, continuing the strong run of tech IPOs in Europe.

Barclays is to face a second shareholder resolution on its response to climate change at its annual general meeting in May, urging it to set more ambitious targets to phase out financing of fossil fuels.

Subordinated bank bonds were under pressure on Thursday and Friday, as risky assets fell victim to the same volatility that has been plaguing rates markets for weeks.

HIG Capital has hired a managing director from Houlihan Lokey for its European direct lending platform.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation as part of its review of the EU’s crisis management framework, as market participants call for more urgent political progress on key areas.

Fastned, the Dutch operator of charging stations for electric cars, has raised €150m to finance an expansion of its network across Europe, at the end of a wild week for tech and green energy stocks.

After a poll of market participants at the end of 2020, GlobalCapital can now reveal the winners of its annual Syndicated Loan and Leveraged Finance Awards. GlobalCapital can also reveal the winners of the Private Debt Awards. Regrettably, we still cannot celebrate the awards with you in person, but we congratulate all the winners and nominees in this exceptionally challenging year.

Banks and investors’ claims to be acting on climate change appear to clash with the financing they still provide in the real economy, research showed this week — such as plans to increase fossil fuel production and consumption, even in the UK and France.