Europe

Spain’s new 50 year euro benchmark, which was priced last week, has performed well in the secondary market with the spread narrowing by 3bp, according to levels provided by ICE Data Services.

Nationwide Building Society has become the first borrower to issue a 10 year deal linked to the Bank of England’s Sonia index. The covered bond, which was issued on Tuesday with a highly oversubscribed order book, provided Nationwide with its cheapest ever funding and will be closely watched by other issuers looking to make similar deals.

Real estate is set to continue to be a key source of equity capital markets issuance in EMEA over the coming months as companies navigate the economic reopening driven by the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines according to sources speaking to GlobalCapital.

Negotiations between the International Monetary Fund and some emerging market countries are yielding mixed results. While some sub-Saharan African sovereigns are making progress in their talks, Ukraine's long-running saga to unlock emergency funding has been unsuccessful so far.

JP Morgan has appointed a new team of senior investment bankers focused on special purpose acquisition companies in Europe, after over $100bn was raised over the past year by cash shells, mostly in the US.

Covered bonds spreads make "no sense" against other asset classes, according to market participants, but issuers can still expect to price bonds inside fair value and be confident their deals will perform thanks to the impact of European Central Bank purchases and negative net supply.

Will Adderley, the deputy chairman of home goods and furnishing company Dunelm, has sold a 15m share stake in the company raising £192m.

The Austrian covered bond issuer Bawag has bought Depfa Bank from the German wind-down agency, FMS Wertmanagement.

Syndicated lending volumes, particularly across emerging markets, have tumbled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year. Though some had hopes that 2021 would yield more activity for lending desks, that optimism has been postponed to next year, as lenders say they simply cannot compete with other asset classes for business.

Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodity traders, has closed a Schuldschein issue in a debut that surprised many in the market. The deal shows there is an appetite for unusual credits among some of the market’s investors. Trafigura’s group treasurer told GlobalCapital that this SSD is only the first from his company.

Mitchell & Butlers, a company that owns UK pubs and restaurant chains including Harvester, will raise £350m through an underwritten equity raise to navigate its way through the latest Covid-19 lockdown. A shareholder consortium made up of Joe Lewis (the owner of Tottenham Hotspur); former Manchester United owners JP McManus and John Magnier; and currency trader Derrick Smith, will back the raise.

Hamburger Hochbahn, a government owned public transport operator in Hamburg, is set to make its bond market debut this week, launching itself as a regular bond issuer.