Europe

HSBC Holdings is issuing a new senior bond while offering to buy back some of its existing securities, less a month after completing a very similar liability management exercise in the dollar market.

Apollo Global Management has monetised another chunk of its stake in Watches of Switzerland, the UK luxury watch retailer that was listed on the London Stock Exchange last year.

Anita McBain, head of responsible investment and environmental and social governance at M&G Investments, is joining Citi as head of ESG research for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Meriem Smida and Christine Coudray have been given new coverage jobs at Natixis, as global head of financial sponsors coverage and global head of banks and international public sector (BIPS) coverage respectively.

More European banks may see benefits to merging with each other as the coronavirus crisis damages profitability and the European Central Bank appears more positive on tie-ups. However, cross-border M&A is likely to remain difficult to execute.

There is still a fair chance of benchmark covered bond supply from central and eastern Europe this year, though it will be limited. Supply scarcity should support spreads alongside a fundamental improvement as all legal frameworks will be updated to bring them into line with the European Union’s covered bond directive.

Irish insulation firm Kingspan has raised €750m-equivalent in US private placements, in its first green issue in the market.

The European Union has announced that it will kick-off the funding for its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) fund in the first half of October after previously aiming for a date towards the end of this month.

French agency Cades will debut its social bond framework in dollars on Tuesday, less than a week after it raised the largest ever bond in the format with its inaugural issue in euros. It will share the market with the International Development Association (IDA), which is preparing to kick off its 2020/21 funding year with a sustainable development benchmark of its own.

Rentenbank is moving forward with its plans to issue a debut euro green benchmark bond following a series of investor meetings over the past few weeks.

During the last week, Turkey’s currency has hit damning lows and the sovereign has been given another credit downgrade. Many say these events should prompt the country to enact serious fiscal and monetary reforms.

Several sources have told GlobalCapital that a clutch of new investors have entered the Schuldschein market, tempted by higher spreads brought on by the pandemic.