Europe

HIG Capital has hired a managing director from Houlihan Lokey for its European direct lending platform.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation as part of its review of the EU’s crisis management framework, as market participants call for more urgent political progress on key areas.

Fastned, the Dutch operator of charging stations for electric cars, has raised €150m to finance an expansion of its network across Europe, at the end of a wild week for tech and green energy stocks.

After a poll of market participants at the end of 2020, GlobalCapital can now reveal the winners of its annual Syndicated Loan and Leveraged Finance Awards. GlobalCapital can also reveal the winners of the Private Debt Awards. Regrettably, we still cannot celebrate the awards with you in person, but we congratulate all the winners and nominees in this exceptionally challenging year.

Banks and investors’ claims to be acting on climate change appear to clash with the financing they still provide in the real economy, research showed this week — such as plans to increase fossil fuel production and consumption, even in the UK and France.

Senior bank finance and capital markets figures speculated this week about where the ECB would be most likely to throw its weight in its effort to boost the sustainability of its balance sheet. With a senior eurozone central banker having recently urged it to decarbonise its assets, banks are on high alert as they anticipate sweeping changes to asset purchase and repo terms, writes Bill Thornhill.

The Schuldschein market must adapt if it wants to win back its international borrower base. While competing with public bonds on price may be out of reach, the instrument can take a leaf out of the US private placement’s book and introduce deferred funding.

The rise in US Treasury yields has begun to sour. While at first it was hailed as an indication that investors were anticipating rapid economic recovery and stimulus-borne inflation, it seems now to have outstripped inflation expectations. The sell-off shows little sign of slowing, and if the volatility does not abate, primary markets could begin to suffer.

Look at any bank’s website or hear its CEO speak and you will get a torrent of virtuous words about climate change, sustainability and supporting clients on their journeys to net zero. The same goes for big investors, from BlackRock down, but the windows of their ivory towers are misted up with all the hot air being spouted.

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Dyal Capital, the US private equity firm that specialises in buying minority equity stakes in private equity and hedge fund managers, has employed a financing method — private placements securitized on fund cashflows — rarely seen before in its industry, writes Silas Brown.

Serbia and Croatia issued euro-denominated bonds this week. Market participants said the deals showed there was strong appetite for the right kind of sovereign credits.