Europe

Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has removed the temporary increase of the covered bond issuance limit mirroring the Bank of Canada’s earlier decision to remove covered bonds as an eligible asset for repo funding.

FastBall Holdings, an investor consortium led by KKR, has offloaded a portion of the stake in Flutter Entertainment it received in December as part of the Irish gaming conglomerate’s buyout of FanDuel Group, the US fantasy sports company.

Neoen, the French renewable energy company, said on Wednesday that it had received huge levels of demand for its €600m rights issue, proving that the right companies in the renewable energy sector can still attract a strong following among equity investors despite recent turbulence in green stocks.

Romania this week returned to the international debt markets to issue euro-denominated bonds.

Synlab, the German laboratory diagnostic services company, has announced its intention to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Société Générale said on Wednesday that it was looking to sell its asset management arm Lyxor to French investor Amundi. The transaction will wrap up a three year restructuring programme, which has added up to 90bp to the bank’s capital ratios.

The disastrous listing of food delivery app company Deliveroo in London last week sent shockwaves through equity capital markets, with some suggesting it will dampen Europe’s IPO market in the next few weeks. But it needn't be as bad as all that. Investors are keen to take part in IPOs — they just need greater discounts that match their perceptions of risk.

Italy and Portugal are the first two eurozone sovereigns out of the blocks for syndications following the Easter break, with the former looking to extend its curve by a further five years.

Market participants are bracing themselves for the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s monetary policy meeting next week, which they hope will result in interest rates being held. Though market access for the sovereign remains difficult, markets are showing some signs of stabilisation.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier took advantage of Tuesday’s strong market conditions to issue its first covered bond of 2021, and the fifth from Groupe BPCE. The €1.5bn eight year negative yielding transaction, which was larger than expected, partially refinances a series of CFF’s redemptions coming up in the next two months.

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, a close-end investment fund that invests in UK energy infrastructure assets, has launched a new capital raise to fund a pipeline of energy storage investments.

NatWest Markets has made another change to its debt financing management structure, with a new role for Roland Plan.