Europe

François Marion has left his position as deputy chief executive of Crédit Agricole's corporate and investment bank, and the bank has reshuffled titles — giving new roles to Pierre Gay and Didier Gaffinel, among others.

Cancelling debt, dual interest rates, helicopter money: if the recovery from the coronavirus crisis stalls in the developed world, we will see calls for more radical central bank action.

Financial institution borrowers are expected to concentrate efforts on their more difficult trades at the start of this year, reflecting the view that credit conditions cannot get much better — a prudent approach to funding. But the economic recovery is unlikely to be as smooth as expected, and although central banks stand ready, credit market volatility should revive covered bonds as the rainy day funding product of choice.

Public sector borrowers soaked up huge demand in the euro market on Tuesday including the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, which printed its biggest ever 100 year bond despite offering a yield of less than 1%.

KfW and Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) achieved strong results in sterling on Tuesday despite extremely volatile conditions in the currency as a result of uncertainty around the impact of Brexit and the rising cases of coronavirus in the UK, which has affected swap spreads and the cross-currency basis swap for non-UK borrowers.

Schuldschein bankers want to make sure last year’s drop in international borrowers was a temporary symptom of the coronavirus pandemic. But with restrictions on travel as well as government support programmes rolling into this year, there is little optimism that non-German issuers will return soon.

Foresight Group, the infrastructure private equity company, is seeking to list on the London Stock Exchange hoping to capitalise on momentum among investors for renewable energy companies.

Lucy Baldwin is joining Citi in April as head of research and equity advisory within the markets and securities services division (MSS).

Luigi Nalini SpA, an investment vehicle representing the Nalini family, has sold €64.5m of stock in Carel Industries, the Italian maker of air conditioning and humidifier systems, via an accelerated bookbuild on Monday night.

The Republic of Slovenia has repeated its 2020 feat of being the first sovereign issuer in CEEMEA to launch a bond by coming to the market with a mandate on Tuesday. Despite the apparent rush for bond funding, however, many believe that EU funding will provide some of what CEE countries would otherwise have taken from public bond markets.

Aareal Bank priced the first covered bond of the year flat to its curve and, unusually, the first leg of the swap payment was priced below the European Central Bank’s deposit rate of minus 0.50%. Even so, the bonds attracted good demand.

EMEA’s equity blocks market has reopened for 2021 with a sale of treasury shares by Immobel, the Belgian real estate developer. More issuance from the sector is expected following the imposition of fresh lockdowns across the continent to combat the spread of coronavirus.