Europe

Three banks jumped into the euro senior market after the Easter break on Tuesday, benefitting from stable demand and printing with low new issue concessions.

Investors were relieved when Credit Suisse finally gave details this week about the damage it has suffered from its Archegos exposures. The losses were higher than expected, but they were not large enough to burn completely through the Swiss bank’s capital cushion.

Air France-KLM has revealed plans for a €4bn recapitalisation backed by the French government following approval from the European Commission.

Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest mobile operator, has sold a social bond in roubles, as it became the latest major Russian corporate to foray into ESG financing. The issuer has not ruled out a return to international markets, although in recent years it has pivoted towards domestic funding.

The equity market — and beyond — has been puzzling over how Deliveroo, one of the most anticipated IPOs of the year, could have suffered so badly in trading on its first day on Wednesday. Some blamed ESG concerns about the working conditions of the firm's delivery riders, others the dual class-share structure but the simplest explanation was that Deliveroo came at the wrong end of an IPO market that was losing steam.

French president Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that stringent lockdown measures imposed in some areas will be extended nationally for a month. Though the measures will cost France €11bn, it is unlikely to provoke a serious response in France’s bond market.

Alychlo, the family investment company of Belgian billionaire Marc Coucke, has reduced its stake in Mithra Pharmaceuticals through a €40m accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday evening.

The Danish cooperative farming company has sold €125m of Schuldschein, the largest placement in its three visits to the market.

Loans still under moratoria may be at a particularly high risk of impairment, according to fresh data from the European Banking Authority this week. The figures also revealed signs of a more general deterioration in asset quality within the EU.

A study of 657,000 UK mortgages undertaken by Nationwide Building Society over the past year suggests that the greener building a mortgage is secured on, the lower the risk of default. Moreover, this relationship is not affected by a borrower’s wealth, the location, or the type of property.

Sales of ESG-labelled debt have skyrocketed in the FIG market over the first quarter of 2021, with issuers already halfway through last year’s total volumes. Deal arrangers are confident that supply will be able to keep pace, as banks find room to expand into a burgeoning social bond market, write Tyler Davies and Bill Thornhill.

Institutional private credit is emerging as a competitive substitute for bank lending in Europe, but companies need to remember that alternative lenders define what they are looking for more narrowly than banks.