Europe

Bank capital funds have been recouping losses and welcoming new inflows after suffering heavily in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), one of the largest owners of shopping malls in the world, is considering a large rights issue to reduce its leverage as the retail industry grapples with the economic fallout of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Kommunalbanken has raised its borrowing requirement for the year back to its initial target as a result of a strong performance in the Norwegian Krone over the summer.

The three major rating agencies have upgraded UBI’s credit rating, to be in line with Intesa Sanpaolo’s as the latter's takeover of the former concludes. Market participants are expecting UBI’s covered bond spreads to tighten as a result.

Banks in the EU have spent the last four years changing the terms and conditions of new issues to create a sense of certainty over how English law bonds will be treated after Brexit.

Germany’s CureVac has gone public on the Nasdaq, joining the army of biotech companies that have tapped the equity capital markets for cash during the pandemic, despite growing concern of a brewing dot-com style bubble.

Spanish telecommunications infrastructure company Cellnex has finished its €4bn rights issue to fund further M&A opportunities, with an extremely high oversubscription.

Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings, an investment holding company focused on operating resorts, is planning a rights issue worth HK$1.6bn ($206m).

The coronavirus crisis has reshaped many aspects of finance, but not the line-up of top investment banks. It does appear to have pressed some firms into sharp decisions, though.

A sombre set of second quarter earnings has done little to frighten credit investors away from European banks this month. Fund managers believe the sector is well capitalised enough to withstand any reasonable shock from Covid-19, putting subordinated bonds in an ideal position to rally into the end of the year, writes Tyler Davies.

As investment bankers got used to working from home in the first half of the year, many more whistleblowing cases were opened by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Meanwhile, challenges around monitoring staff and forging a bank’s internal culture have not gone away just because the workforce is outside of the office.

Domestic lenders across central and eastern Europe, often government owned, have stepped up during the coronavirus pandemic to provide substantially more funding than ever before. But international bankers still see plenty of syndicated lending opportunities in the region.