Europe

Two public sector borrowers hit the euro bond market on Wednesday, raising what might well be the final benchmark funding of 2020.

The UK government tightened guidance for local authority borrowing on Wednesday, in a bid to stymie the riskier borrowing-to-invest models certain UK councils have adopted over the past decade.

The UK Debt Management Office provided an update to its funding programme following the Spending Review and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook on Wednesday.

UK homebuilder Bellway has sold £130m of US private placements, according to market sources, across seven and 10 years. This is likely to be the last broadly marketed USPP deal of the year.

The outlook for Asian covered bond supply will have improved slightly in the wake of Tuesday’s deal from United Overseas Bank, particularly among Singaporean lenders. But issuance from Australia and New Zealand is expected to be more limited, reflecting their banks' priority to get ahead with regulatory funding.

Shares in Nordnet rose in the aftermarket after the digital bank began trading on Nasdaq Stockholm on Wednesday, following its Skr9bn (€885m) IPO.

Luminor Bank was more than 3-1/2 times subscribed on its return to the euro market on Wednesday, allowing it to demonstrate a year-on-year improvement in its senior funding costs.

Turkey raised a dollar bond on Tuesday, pricing $2.25bn of 10 year funding flat to its curve, demonstrating that investors believe it is recovering after a period of financial peril.

As market participants prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31, the European Securities and Markets Authority has said it will not change requirements on where derivatives can be traded, even though this could cause problems for UK branches of EU investment firms.

London-listed Gresham House Energy Storage Fund attracted strong interest from investors in its 114.3m share issue as green stocks continue to prove popular with ECM investors.

GlobalCapital’s poll to determine our Syndicated Loan and Leveraged Finance Awards 2020 will close today. If you haven't yet voted, we would be delighted if you would take this opportunity to pick the deals and firms that have made the most difference to loan markets in 2020. We remind you that an institution cannot win a category it hasn't voted on.

After a decade of slumber, the market for euro-denominated Hungarian covered bonds could be poised to reopen. Hungary covered bonds may have a low country ceiling credit rating but the market is well protected and could offer positive yields.