Europe

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

The Spac craze that has swept US stock markets has spread to Europe with a new vehicle called Pegasus set to be listed in Amsterdam. The Spac is led by former UniCredit CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier, LVMH founder Bernard Arnault and Tikehau Capital and is expected to prompt a wave of new issuance, according to sources speaking to GlobalCapital.

This week in Keeping Tabs: an opportunity for the UK's finance sector after Brexit, and an argument for why you shouldn't worry about the stock market.

Schuldschein investors have told GlobalCapital that dwindling deal flow has meant they have to look elsewhere for assets. Some have turned to the secondary markets and others to bilateral deals.

London’s investment trusts have been tapping a deep pool of equity capital earmarked for green-linked deals. On Friday, SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEEIT), the UK-listed energy efficiency investor, closed a £160m raise, £60m more than its original target and on the same day Greencoat UK Wind, the investment trust focused on UK wind farms, launched a £197.6m follow-on.

The UK sold its last syndication of the financial year on Tuesday, selling a £2.25bn 2051 index linked bond — its first syndication in the format since November 2019.

The green premium between Germany’s five year green Bobl and its conventional twin has increased to 3bp for the first time since the green Bobl was priced last November.

Global financial institutions will focus more on their home markets amid a sharp fall in funding requirements this year, leaving sterling credit investors yearning for more supply from overseas FIG issuers.

ESG Core Investments has become the first European special purpose acquisition company to go public in 2021.

Kirshlen Moodley, formerly a member of JP Morgan's UK M&A team, has joined BNP Paribas.

Thomas Piketty and 100 other economists from across Europe put their signatures to an op-ed this week calling for the ECB to cancel its holdings of government debt. GlobalCapital debates whether it is radical but wise policy making, or would make matters worse still.

Eurozone inflation leapt up in January, steepening curves and fuelling feverish demand for long-end bond issues. But the move lacks the vigour and commitment of the US reflation trade and economists expect it to subside later in the year. As Lewis McLellan reports, with no prospects of higher rates, investors will be pushed into longer and longer debt maturities as they attempt to lock in positive yields.