Europe

Regulators have made adjustments to the timeline for the transition away from Libor as a result of a sudden outbreak of lending, driven by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant banks have had to divert time and resources away from the transition and into deal-making.

Norwegian video conferencing company Pexip has been hailed by equity capital markets bankers as an ideal IPO for the times amid a surge in remote working due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Beijing Enterprises Clean Energy Group (BECE) has returned with a three year renminbi-denominated puttable bond, bringing yet another green transaction to the Panda market.

Investment banks are working with issuers preparing rights issues for balance sheet repair, as governments across Europe prepare to ease Covid-19 lockdowns.

The region of Madrid and the European Investment Bank are both marketing seven year euro deals, with the former preparing the first green labelled bond by a Spanish government entity. Elsewhere in the euro public sector bond market, Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust is moving forward with its first bond in the currency.

Five years after issuing its first green Pfandbrief, Berlin Hyp (BHH) issued its first two green private placements, just before publishing it annual green bonds report on Monday. But Pfandbrief benchmark supply hopes seem distant as spreads to German Laender are prohibitively tight.

Italy’s credit rating is dividing analysts. Some believe that it should have been downgraded by S&P on April 24 because of the country's ballooning debt burden, while others felt that the European Central Bank can keep the refinancing risk at bay.

Spreads in the financial institutions bond market have sprung back to more ‘normal’ levels lately, but issuers may have to wait a little while longer before capitalising on the improvement in conditions, given that many of them are side-lined by earnings blackouts.

Greencoat UK Wind, the highly acquisitive UK investment fund focused on UK wind farms has entered an agreement to acquire a Scottish wind farm for £320m. Greencoat has all the financing it needs already to complete the deal, scheduled to close in the first quarter 2023, but it is looking at further acquisitions and could turn to equity to finance it.

Deutsche Bank’s additional tier ones surged higher in value this week, after the German lender reassured the market with positive guidance on its first quarter earnings.

Crisis lending to emerging market sovereigns is coming ever more from multilateral development banks rather than commercial lenders, as the latter retreat to funding companies and other financial institutions.

The European Commission will put forward a legislative proposal next week that could give banks more room for flexibility when applying the IFRS 9 accounting standards.