Europe

Fondo Gomma Plastica, Fopen, Pegaso and Previmoda are looking for a direct lender to manage just under €200m of capital, in a push for higher yielding assets.

The MTN market has had a tough year, as central bank support programmes and rampant public market issuance ate away at the volume done in private markets. Most notable was the 42% decline in bank issuance, which made up the majority of the year’s fall in MTN volume.

The UK Debt Management Office has responded to a letter from the chair of Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee Mel Stride, questioning whether the DMO’s syndications were priced to obtain the best value possible for the taxpayer.

The European Union will introduce a law early next year to oblige member states to report on how they are spending Next Generation EU funds, to support the bloc’s plan to issue green bonds.

Equity investors have begun in recent months to allocate capital away from some of the high growth firms which dominated equity capital market supply this year to more cyclical companies that are set to benefit when economies reopen from Covid-19 lockdowns. They are also looking to buy into emerging markets, predicting rising equity valuations in places like Russia and some parts of Latin America.

The looming threat of a no deal Brexit, as well as the chaos ensuing from the UK’s new stricter restrictions to combat Covid-19, caused Gilt yields to plunge on Monday morning. Unless EU and UK politicians are able to come to agreement on a trade deal soon, negative rates look almost inevitable.

European stock markets fell heavily in early trading on Monday morning after European countries shut their borders to the UK over a new mutant variant of the coronavirus, which is rapidly spreading through the country. With the UK also heading rapidly towards a no-deal Brexit in January there is little Christmas cheer among equity investors.

In November, GlobalCapital polled loan market participants for its 18th Syndicated Loan and Leveraged Finance Awards. The nominations are listed below, in alphabetical order. We will reveal the winners at a virtual event in February. Further details on the event will be laid out on our website in January. We congratulate the nominees.

This week in Keeping Tabs: Republicans battle over Federal Reserve support, a look back at the "Spanish" flu, and a quiz from the Bank of England.

FMS Wertmanagement, the Germany’s winding-up institution for the nationalised Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, will need to borrow a much smaller sum from public bond markets next year as a result of an increase in direct long-term euro funding from Germany’s Financial Market Stabilisation Fund (SoFFin).

The death knell has sounded for Libor and the ubiquitous benchmark is entering its last year of existence. But while some market segments have set their houses in order for the change, the loan market has barely begun. Europe’s bankers expect an onslaught of borrowers switching their documents to new rates at the same time. Mike Turner reports

The shock of coronavirus has changed markets — and society — forever. Toby Fildes picks out the key themes that will emerge from that upheaval in 2021. As 2020 has reminded everyone, the unexpected will happen — but markets can cope.