Europe

The European Covered Bond Council has updated its harmonised transparency template to include a new tab that tracks mortgage loans that have been granted a payment holiday due to the impact of Covid-19. Credit rating agency analysts welcomed the move, but said there is still a question over how loans will perform after payment holidays end.

The Republic of Albania won a €3bn book for its bond market return on Tuesday, whittling down pricing to a yield of 3.625% for its seven-year deal.

Simon Field, who spent many years in HSBC’s global banking team looking after public sector clients, has taken up a new position as global head of escrow.

Whitbread, the parent of Premier Inn and Beefeater Restaurants, completed its £1bn rights issue on Wednesday, winning strong support from shareholders, who backed the company’s desire for expansion as the coronavirus pandemic recedes.

Simon Eedle has been named senior country manager for the UK at Natixis’s corporate and investment bank. Barbara Riccardi steps into his old position as regional head for the Middle East.

Italy is launching a new retail product, the BTP Futura, turning to its impressive stock of domestic savings to help finance its recovery. It’s an excellent move, and could be even more valuable to Italy’s recovery from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic than the external support of the European Stability Mechanism.

The UK Debt Management Office launched a syndication on Tuesday, printing a new October 2050 line and raising £9bn.

Unédic is preparing to issue its second social bond following its debut trade in the format less than a month ago — itself the biggest social bond ever from any issuer.

Three SSA borrowers hit the dollar market on Tuesday. The Inter-American Development Bank raised $4bn with a five year while Kommunalbanken tested the waters at 10 years. The World Bank joined them with a small but impressive bond linked to Sofr.

After three eurozone sovereigns hit the primary market on Tuesday, more supply will follow on Wednesday with Germany setting its sights on its second syndicated transaction after returning to the format in May, helping it deal with a much bigger funding programme in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

There were no issues of competing supply on Tuesday as three eurozone sovereigns amassed big order books, buoyed by last week’s expansion of the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (Pepp).

PharmaSGP, the manufacturer of natural, non-chemical over-the-counter drugs, is on the road, in a virtual sense, with a an IPO that could reach €328.4m, which would make it the largest so far in Germany this year.