Europe

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co has raised $1.81bn from its listing of Global Depository Receipts, becoming just the second company to use the London-Shanghai Stock Connect scheme.

The UK Treasury should set up a £15bn fund for British companies, which could be floated on the stock market in a few years’ time, according to member of parliament Bim Afolami. He also spoke to GlobalCapital about how he thinks the Bank of England could benefit from a new target linked to GDP.

Recent events have neatly illustrated the fickle state of market sentiment and suggest that a broad spectrum of borrowers in the corporate and bank finance markets should not waste time in getting their most difficult or important deals done while the window remains open.

The UK electricity operator National Grid has raised a multi-export credit agency (ECA) covered loan, which also adheres to the Loan Market Association’s Green Loan Principles.

Andreas Dombret has joined boutique bank Houlihan Lokey to offer advice to management. Houlihan has been expanding in Europe in recent years.

UK listed product inspection company Intertek is looking to sell US private placements, according to sources, as the market struggles to entice companies away from bond issuance and bank lending.

Region Stockholm printed a health impact bond on Tuesday. It is an example of a social impact bond. Unlike a vanilla social bond, the repayment and interest on the bond are directly linked to the success of the funded health project.

Armin Peter has been made head of sustainable banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UBS.

Axa Banque SFH mandated leads on Tuesday for its first deal of the year, a €500m 15 year, while DZ Hyp has appointed leads for a benchmark eight year Pfandbrief.

Asset managers are set to face bigger demands for equity funding later in the year, despite having already thrown billions at the market as companies attempted to survive the coronavirus pandemic. A source close to BlackRock said it had already committed $18bn-equivalent in equity funding to European companies during the crisis but inflows from US investors will help it and its peers buy into the deals to come.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, June 15. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Caisse Francaise De Financement Local (Caffil) lost €700m of orders after deciding to price its €1bn 10 year covered bond flat to OATs on Tuesday. But in contrast Vseobecna uverova banka (VUB) was able to price comfortably inside fair value largely because its deal offered a substantial pick-up to other covered bonds.