Europe

Three eurozone sovereigns all extended their euro curves with huge order books for syndicated transactions this week in a sign of rampant investor appetite for long-dated debt.

Europe’s IPO market is off to a flying start in 2021 with deals pricing well and trading up in the aftermarket. Most importantly, Europe’s most recent new listings have stayed above water, despite last week’s heightened volatility. Sources are hoping the new fashion for building resilient deals will mean the IPO market can weather any storms coming ahead.

Europe’s equity-linked bankers are excited about the latest crop of IPOs in the region, as many of the companies to have recently listed are natural issuers of convertible bonds, so they could bring supply to a market that has historically lacked a deep pool of growth companies. Aidan Gregory reports.

Philippe Henry, head of HSBC's global banking franchise for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is leaving the bank.

Belfius Bank and Santander found strong support among bank treasury investors in the euro market this week, helping them to print new preferred senior deals at very low yields.

CaixaBank and BayernLB were able to sail through fair value with green non-preferred senior deals this week, bucking a trend for rising new issue premiums in 2021. Bankers say a lack of supply is finally helping borrowers to exert more power over their pricing.

Goldman Sachs is trying to steal a march on rivals as it looks to turbo-charge its European business by leading the listings of the region’s most vibrant start-ups, writes David Rothnie.

Morgan Stanley swung by the euro market this week to raise €1.75bn of new senior debt. The move was unexpected given that pricing for international issuers remains more favourable in dollars.

Top tier Turkish lender Akbank will launch a syndicated loan refinancing within weeks, according to sources. The borrower is likely to get tighter margins than for its last loan offering in October 2020.

Foresight Group, the infrastructure private equity company focused on renewable energy, has closed its IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

US private placement bankers in Europe have called on institutional investors to reduce their yield requirements or face another year of losing out on deals to the public markets.

The Prudential Regulation Authority wants UK lenders to carry out “tactical solutions” over the next six months so that they are ready for the possibility of negative rates later this year.