Europe

DCM officials are busy preparing their summer deal pipelines, with banks expected to take advantage of a strong technical bid in the market following their second quarter earnings.

Eurozone peripheral government yields dipped lower on Monday morning in a sign of investors’ optimism for EU leaders to finally strike a deal on the size of the proposed coronavirus recovery fund when talks resume for a fourth consecutive day later in the afternoon.

Freeline Theraputics, the UK gene therapeutics company, has filed to list in the US on the Nasdaq exchange, continuing the trend of biotech companies seeking to raise capital in the equity capital markets.

Capza, the European private investment platform focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, completed a €450m capital raising for a new equity fund this week, taking its total assets under management to more than €4bn.

Analysts think Intesa Sanpaolo will succeed in winning over UBI Banca’s shareholders after sweetening the terms of its takeover bid. The merger deal is seen as an important test case for consolidation in the Italian banking sector.

Each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web. This week: what’s next for the US after its war on Huawei, the impact that more robots would have on the gender pay gap, and a look on the bright side of Europe’s mishmash of state guarantee schemes.

Terna, the Italian high voltage grid operator, issued a green 12 year €500m no-grow bond on Friday.

Portugal is unlikely to suffer a downgrade to its credit rating by Moody’s when it publishes its latest review of the sovereign later on Friday, according to analysts.

Policymakers should think about whether there are impediments that prevent banks from using their capital buffers appropriately in times of stress, the Financial Stability Board said this week.

Germany is calling for bids for state-owned Depfa Bank, the once prolific issuer of Irish and German covered bonds whose parent, Hypo Real Estate, was taken into public ownership as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. There is little chance, however, that the transaction could see the issuer return to the covered bond market.

Gambling firm Gamenet sold €640m in fixed and floating senior secured notes this week, in a bid to refinance its take-private by private equity firm Apollo as well as two outstanding floating rate notes. The Italian company amended a raft of terms to sweeten the deal for investors.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes in mid-July.