Europe

Concerns that London is losing ground to other financial centres within Europe, such as Amsterdam, which has surpassed London as Europe’s largest centre for equities trading, are overblown. The UK capital remains an attractive listing venue for high-growth firms and could become more so after a Treasury review of London’s listing regime is published this week. But the City should not abandon the core principles on which its reputation has been built just to claw back a short-term loss of business.

KfW rebooted the short end of the euro public sector bond market on Tuesday with a well subscribed trade which offered a modest new issue premium. The deal shared the euro SSA market with the State of Baden-Württemberg’s debut green bond.

Hypo Tirol Bank has mandated leads to roadshow its first social covered bond and SR Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a vanilla deal. Both issuers plan on following printing 10 year deals, where yields are almost positive.

Sameer Rehman, director of debt and capital markets at TD Securities in London, is heading back to Toronto after 12 years in the UK to focus on Canadian public sector borrowers.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, March 1. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Banco de Sabadell was met with good demand for the first euro additional tier one benchmark of the year on Tuesday, as investors welcomed a rare opportunity to pick up subordinated bank debt in the primary market. Alpha Bank could add to the supply later this week after unveiling plans for a new tier two transaction.

HVB, the Germany subsidiary of UniCredit, attracted more demand for its €750m 10 year than any Pfandbrief of that size launched in over a decade.

In The Style, the UK online fashion company, is gauging investor appetite for a stockmarket listing, having announced its intention to float this week.

The City of Moscow will enter the bond market as soon as this spring, after a long hiatus from the market, according to a senior politician. The municipality has also set its sights on a green bond, which would mark a first for the government.

Swiss Steel, the Swiss manufacturer of steel and steel products formerly known as Schmolz + Bickenbach, has unveiled the terms of a Sfr220m (€200m) rights issue, required to help the company improve its capital position.

HSBC was looking to issue two tranches of additional tier one capital in dollars on Tuesday, as rates markets moved back into a more stable trading pattern.

Increased consumer spending leading to a fall in deposits would provide the catalyst for higher covered bond issuance, according to one European bank's head of funding. But only if the credit curve steepens and senior debt grows more expensive to raise relative to covered bond funding.