Europe

The UK Debt Management Office launched a new 25 year line on Tuesday, raising £6.5bn. The DMO also published the minutes of its call with investors and Gilt-edged Market Makers on Monday, revealing strong appetite for inflation-linked products.

Frazer Ross, head of investment grade debt syndicate for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank, is taking a sabbatical.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt’s covered bond drew more demand than competing deals issued by Berlin Hyp and Royal Bank of Canada on Tuesday, thanks to its more generous spread, shorter duration and favourable liquidity treatment.

Levels of asset encumbrance increased sharply in the first half of 2020, the European Banking Authority said in a report this week. It warned that roughly half of the assets eligible as collateral for central bank funding schemes are now encumbered.

Sovcombank, one of Russia's largest private banks, this week raised its debut social bond — still a rare format among emerging markets borrowers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The bond follows an ESG loan the bank raised just weeks ago.

Turkey and Bahrain took to primary markets to raise bond funding on Tuesday. But the appearance of two high yield credits has not driven unqualified enthusiasm for all borrowers in that asset class.

Motability Operations Group, the UK non-profit company that leases cars to disabled people, will only issue social bonds in future, after successfully using the format for the first time last week.

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, January 18. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Investment bank BTIG has hired Neil Roberts and Matthew Austin for its institutional equities division in London.

Moonpig, the online greetings card company, has started its IPO process with a boost, announcing two big cornerstone orders at the beginning of investor education. Meanwhle, Dr Martens, the UK bootmaker, has published its intention to float on the London Stock Exchange without cornerstones, but sources say that either cornerstones or anchors are a strong possibility on that deal.

Immunocore, the UK biotech company, has filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq in New York following a $75m series ‘C’ funding round which concluded last week.

Many EU companies could do with capital beyond debt, according to the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme). The trade body, in a report it produced alongside PwC, suggests encouraging the use of equity-adjacent products to fill balance sheet gaps from the coronavirus crisis.