Europe

Norwegian video conferencing firm Pexip has shown that there may yet be life in Europe's IPO market, which had been presumed incapacitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Investors said they are happy to buy new flotations but probably only a select group of companies will be able to come to market.

The Netherlands has increased its borrowing programme for the year as a result of a measures taken by the government following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Société Générale’s equities division posted a 99% year-on-year drop in revenues for the first quarter on Thursday, contributing to an overall loss in both the wholesale division and for the bank overall.

The Instituto de Crédito Oficial expects to come to market for a social bond aimed at mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the Spanish economy in the next few weeks, if a suitable window presents itself.

Italy was able to raise almost €6bn in auctions with ease on Wednesday following Tuesday night’s unexpected downgrade by Fitch, which leaves it just one notch above junk.

A €1bn five year covered bond issued on Tuesday by Caffil, that was designed to provide funding for French hospitals in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, has demonstrated that the market for public sector covered bonds, which has been in decline for more than a decade, could now be reinvigorated. Higher local authority spending could well find its way into the cover pools of French and German covered bond issuers, the head of treasury and financial markets at SFIL, Caffil's parent organisation, said on Wednesday.

Finnish national airline Finnair has launched a rights issue in response to the coronavirus pandemic — the first in an expected wave of large European rescue recapitalisations.

Lloyds Development Capital, the private equity arm of Lloyds Bank, has sold a chunk of its stake in Yorkshire-based games developer Team17 after the stock hit an all-time high due to a huge increase in the volume of gamers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Republic of Lithuania joined the ranks of top tier emerging markets issuers proving their access to bond markets in the teeth of the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, as it broke its issuance record with a €2bn dual tranche trade.

Rabobank has become the first Dutch bank to enter the credit markets in over two months, after launching a non-preferred senior bond on Wednesday. The issuer tacked on a call option, which bankers say are cheap to deliver in the market at the moment.

Fitch Ratings has lowered Italy’s credit rating one notch to BBB- on Tuesday night, making the move more than two months ahead of its scheduled review in July.

Barclays’ revenue from markets in the first quarter was its best ever, the bank said, but another large figure overshadowed this: credit provisions across the group came in at more than double the consensus estimate, on the basis of macroeconomic assumptions seen as conservative and a £300m hit from low oil prices.