Europe

Lloyds Banking Group asked permission from investors this week to change the reset rates on two of its additional tier one (AT1) securities so they bear reference to Sonia. The move is likely to kick off a trend in sterling and in dollars, as market participants prepare for the death of Libor.

The volumes issued by SSAs this year so far have never been higher, but SSA bankers believe the pace must slow as the fourth quarter begins.

Dutch food and biochemical company Corbion has signed a $170m US private placement with five institutional investors.

Serco has sold $200m of US private placements, according to market sources. The deal shows there is still muted support for UK support services, given the right credit and offer, after the sector fell out of favour with PP investors a few years ago.

Gabriel Levy, who starts as Natixis's global head of debt capital markets on Thursday, says that the bank has made its FIG business more balanced, while its SSA franchise needs to speed up growth outside of France.

BNP Paribas showed that structural creativity can achieve results in equity capital markets with a €462m block trade in Alstom stock on Tuesday evening. The bank used a forward sale structure to allow Bouygues to financially sell a 4.85% stake in Alstom now, but legally retain the shares until the end of next month so it can vote in favour of an acquisition.

Karri Vuori has joined UK mid-market M&A firm Cavendish Corporate Finance as a partner.

After mandating leads on Monday, Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) opened order books on Wednesday for its first dollar deal in over a year and the first dollar covered bond since May. In the meantime, investors were waiting for Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank's first deal amid renewed hopes that a core European issuer will mandate before the end of the week. With redemptions mounting, there are hopes that other issuers will pounce on the market early in the fourth quarter.

Equity capital markets bankers are heralding the success of emerging markets IPOs set to be priced in the coming days and weeks, including the flotations of Russia’s Sovcomflot, Lithuania’s Ignitis, Saudi Arabia’s BinDawood and Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) is set to become the first Greek financial institution to issue a green bond, after announcing plans for a new green senior deal on Wednesday.

Engineering Group, an Italian IT services company, has returned to market after pulling a deal in June, for a second attempt at taking out the buyout bridge for its acquisition by Bain Capital and Neuberger Berman.

Aareal Bank sold the first bank bond in euros for a week on Wednesday, offering encouragement to other issuers who have remained stuck in the pipeline.