Europe

BPCE issued a transition bond this week to finance loans made by Natixis, its corporate and investment bank. The deal gave Natixis a chance to demonstrate the value of using a green weighting factor when allocating capital to new lending, as the mechanism helped the issuer select its assets and prove its own commitment to sustainability.

France has lined up its 2021 funding programme, looking to sell some long end syndications and to return to the green bond market for its sophomore outing in the format.

In the latest sign that bank supervisors are preparing for consolidation in the sector, the EU's Single Resolution Board has outlined its expectations for how lenders can make sure they are resolvable when undertaking M&A.

Puma, the sportswear maker, has sold €250m in a Schuldscheine tied to its sustainability performance. Small investor allocations imply that the deal was heavily oversubscribed.

The coronavirus crisis, new challengers, technology and capital requirements threaten to shake up the banking sector — and banks are likely to shift business models substantially, according to management consultancy firm Arthur D Little.

French energy firm Albioma has sold €100m of Euro PPs, with the interest on the debt tied to its share of renewable energy in its overall production.

The Belgian debt agency has announced its borrowing for 2021, reducing its requirements relative to the amount it has raised in 2020 — although it is a sharp increase relative to the amount it planned to raise this year before the pandemic hit.

A busy December for Nordic equity capital markets continued on Tuesday night with a Nkr2bn ($230m) transaction in Adevinta, the e-commerce and classified advertising company owned by Schibsted Media Group.

Home24, the German online furniture retailer, has sold €46.4m of new stock to finance its ongoing growth after the company’s share price more than tripled this year.

The UK Debt Management Office has put out a request for green structuring advisers for the launch of its first green Gilt.

Investment bankers have piled up heaps of revenue for their firms this year, but their employers may feel the need not to be too generous with bonuses in the first few months of next year.

The sustainable finance market clamoured for a Taxonomy to tell it what was green. Now it’s here, many are finding the answers constraining or simplistic. Alarmingly, the Taxonomy is also perpetuating the very thing it was supposed to root out — greenwashing.