Europe

Swedish social housing manager Samhällsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden (SBB) has issued a Sk2.75bn (€270m) mandatory convertible bond to shore up its balance sheet as it pursues further investment opportunities in the social infrastructure space.

HICL Infrastructure, the UK-based infrastructure equity investor, has launched a capital raise to repay £75m worth of debt in order to shore up its finances for further acquisitions.

In this round-up, the UK bars Huawei Technologies from its 5G mobile network, the Chinese foreign ministry retaliates against recent US sanctions, and Donald Trump signs an executive order that ends Hong Kong’s preferential trade treatment.

It’s time to get the toughest deals done as market conditions are likely to deteriorate in the autumn, when a second coronavirus wave and a more material deterioration in banks’ balance sheets could knock sentiment.

Short sellers who for years have complained that BaFin, the German financial markets regulator, ignored their criticisms of Wirecard, the collapsed payments company, and instead prosecuted the critics, have begun to be vindicated with the news that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has opened a review into the organisation. By Silas Brown.

EU leaders meet this weekend to hash out the multi-annual financial framework — the €1tr plan guiding the bloc’s next seven years of spending. The budget contains the €750bn recovery fund, which will likely prove a contentious topic but, if approved, it could reshape the European economy and lead to big changes in its public sector bond market. Lewis McLellan reports.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) is planning to return to the Swiss franc bond market in the latter half of 2020 after an 18-month absence to refinance an upcoming redemption. Elsewhere, the Canton of Geneva returned to the market for the third time this month as it marches towards a record year on the capital markets.

De Volksbank said that ambitious sustainability targets played a big role in helping it to attract investor attention this week. The Dutch lender became the first European bank to sell a tier two bond in green format, hot on the heels of the first green additional tier one transaction.

Rating: Baa1/BBB+/BBB-

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations issued its yearly Samurai bond on Thursday, raising ¥20bn ($190m) with a dual tranche.

Investors are growing increasingly excited about the IPO of Allegro, the Polish e-commerce platform, and the sources working on the deal are hoping to use this momentum to launch the deal early in the autumn.

Financial institutions are set to spend the summer months monitoring conditions for issuance in order to continue funding this year or to frontload funding needs for next year, according to deal arrangers.