Europe

Natixis has hired Mark Soriano, formerly at Barclays, for its capital structure and rating advisory team.

Companies are increasingly turning to cornerstone and anchor investors to support their IPOs across the price range before deals are launched. While the phenomenon is common in Asia and the Nordic markets, it has been rarer in UK and most continental European deals until now, but the trend is turning into the norm, reports Sam Kerr.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia found plenty of demand as it came to the market with a new 30 year benchmark on Thursday, ahead of the European Central Bank’s first monetary policy meeting of the year.

Santander reckons it can harness the power of hydrogen to boost its standing in corporate and investment banking, building on its ESG credentials in similar way to how rivals built supremacy during the internet boom, writes David Rothnie.

Stocks have hit new all-time highs in the wake of Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president on Wednesday. Barring any shocks, the bullishness in equity markets is expected to translate into a strong blocks market over the coming weeks and months.

RBC Capital Markets has reorganised its European equity capital markets and corporate broking business following the decision of Darrell Uden to step down at the end of this month.

Two Russian gold miners are among a number of Russian companies looking at listing possibilities in 2021 capitalising on a strong 2020 for the precious metal.

Investors have enthusiastically backed a €4.6bn financing package for Ineos Quattro, funding the integration of BP’s aromatics and acetyls business into the chemicals conglomerate. Strong demand allowed the company to raise more secured debt than expected, cutting funding costs, and strip out a bank-targeted term loan ‘A’ in favour of a bigger, cheaper, institutional term loan ‘B’.

The Europe Investment Bank extended the euro short term rate (€STR) floating rate note curve on Wednesday with 2021’s first deal in the format.

The covered bond market is set to experience one of the steepest declines in issuance on record this January. Yet, despite a poor start, bankers still expect a resurgence in the primary market, although extended lockdown restrictions are creating uncertainty.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the London-listed investment fund focused on music royalties, is embarking on yet another share sale to finance its bulging pipeline of acquisitions.

InPost, the Polish provider of postal lockers, has set a price range for its IPO on the Amsterdam stock exchange, valuing it at €8bn at the top.