Europe

Russian borrowers are swarming the loan market despite a broader decline in emerging market loan volumes. Borrowers are pushing for tighter margins and longer tenors, as they grapple with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and fresh US sanction threats.

German semi-conductor business Infineon, which is Europe’s largest chip maker, has sold $1.3bn of US private placements, according to several market sources, in the largest trade from Europe in almost five years.

Segezha Group, the Russian paper and pulp company, is exploring a number of capital markets options to help finance growth. These include a green bond and a potential IPO, Rovshan Aliyev, vice-president of finance, tells GlobalCapital.

The Restaurant Group, the owner of multiple UK dining brands including Wagamama and Frankie & Benny’s, has completed a £175m capital raising, with a high take up from shareholders.

Dexia Credit Local was the sole public sector borrower to announce a new deal in the primary market on Monday as it mandated banks for a five year dollar trade.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress Europe's supranationals and agencies have made in their funding programmes at the end of March.

HSBC UK Bank plc has set up a UK covered bond programme which, in contrast to its previous one, sits inside its ring-fenced entity and is likely to be used for distributed issuance.

Shares in ActiveOps, the Reading-based management software company, traded up more than 13% on Monday after the company made its debut on London’s alternative investment market (Aim).

CNP Assurances found favourable pricing in dollars this week, when it ventured into the Reg S market for its second sale of restricted tier one (RT1) capital.

JP Morgan has appointed two new co-heads of EMEA equity syndicate to replace Lorenzo Soler, who moved back to the US to run the bank’s Americas syndicate desk. One is an internal hire and the other joins from Deutsche Bank.

Shares in European FinTech IPO Company 1, a new blank cheque firm focused on financial technology in Europe, fell in trading on Friday following the company’s €415m flotation on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

The Autonomous Community of Andalucia has selected banks to arrange a series of meetings with investors to promote its new sustainable finance framework and provide a credit update.