Europe

Ed Mulderrig has been appointed head of European debt syndicate at UBS, the latest in a series of changes to the responsibilities of the firm's senior debt capital markets bankers.

Three of France’s best known entrepreneurs have partnered up to launch a special purpose acquisition vehicle (Spac) on the French stock exchange, which is seeking to invest in organic and sustainable consumer goods. The deal has made a fast start on its first day of book building.

French hotels group Accor this week became the latest issuer to tap the convertible bond market for financing in the wake of the rally in value stocks following positive Covid vaccine news in early November.

Charlie Nunn, HSBC's global chief executive for wealth and personal banking, has been appointed as the next chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group.

Italy returned to the private placement market to print one of the year’s largest MTNs on Thursday. The deal stood out this week, since issuance in the market has started to wind down ahead of Christmas.

This week in Keeping Tabs: a proposal to replace green bonds with certificates, the dramatic consequences of low rates, and a different side to viruses.

Bank lenders are hopeful that volumes across the typically active central and eastern Europe region will pick up, after what has been a disappointing year. This week Romanian meat processing company Carmistin Group raised a syndicated loan from a range of regional lenders, which is one of only five deals signed in the country this year.

Banco de Sabadell’s debt securities took a nose-dive in the secondary market on Friday morning, after the Spanish lender said that it had failed to agree on the terms of a merger with BBVA.

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish wind farms fund managed by Greencoat Capital, launched a €100m equity capital raise on Thursday to free-up funds for acquisitions.

Schroder British Opportunities Trust, a new listed fund set up by Schroders to invest in undervalued UK equities, has completed its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, raising just £75m.

Santander UK has requested investors’ consent to alter the terms of four sterling covered bonds from referencing Libor to Sonia. The borrower will use the same method it used when converting its additional tier one notes for the fixed rate deals, while changing the floating rate notes will be a simpler task.

Enel is planning €10bn of extra renewable energy investment in Europe, as a result of the support it hopes to get from the European Union’s €750bn recovery fund. But it believes the EU should refine its aid to subsidise sustainable finance more directly.