Europe

The shock departure this weekend of Turkey’s central bank governor and finance minister has sparked hopes among market watchers that a monetary policy overhaul could be on the cards, as the lira made a modest recovery on Monday. The news follows what has been a tumultuous period for the currency, which this month hit record lows.

Bytes Technology, the cyber security and cloud services company, is pressing ahead with its proposed demerger from its South African parent Altron, through an IPO on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.

Aegon Bank issued its first covered bond in three years on Monday, with the double digit spread drawing robust demand, enabling the conditional pass through bonds to be priced inside fair value, thereby catalysing a repricing of the Dutch CPT market. The deal follows a sub-benchmark 20 year soft bullet covered bond from NN Bank.

Renewable energy stocks have surged since it became apparent that Joe Biden — a candidate deemed to be more environment-friendly than the incumbent, Donald Trump — was likely to become the next US president. Market watchers believe this will translate into equity capital markets deals from the sector.

Société Générale said on Monday that planned "adjustments and optimisations" should lead to a net reduction of around 640 posts in France, as it changes its structured products business and mulls altering securities services too.

The Bank of England added £150bn to its quantitative easing programme at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The move will go a long way to soaking up the additional supply of Gilts.

The Royal College of Surgeons England has sold £40m of private placements, to help finance the redevelopment of its headquarters in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London.

Elke Koenig, chair of the Single Resolution Board, said this week that new ‘pre-liquidation’ supervisory tools could be used to address the problem of having banks that are too small for resolution and too big for insolvency.

HSBC Holdings did not need to wait for a result in the US presidential election as it opened order books for a dual-tranche senior deal in euros on Friday, paving the way for further supply in the FIG market next week.

Cellnex, the highly acquisitive Spanish telecoms infrastructure company, has become the first European issuer to tap the equity-linked market in the wake of the US elections, with a jumbo 11 year €1.5bn convertible bond – the longest maturity seen in the market for over a decade.

Rank Group, the UK gambling conglomerate that owns Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, completed a capital raise for 19.9% of its share capital, to give it enough headroom to manage through the next stage of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Co-operative Bank said on Friday that it was pressing ahead with plans to raise £200m of debt for the minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in the fourth quarter of this year, hoping to overcome "challenging" conditions to remain on track with its targets.