Europe

Reviews of key areas of legislation such as MiFID II, bank capital requirements and Solvency II have been pushed into the future, as the European Commission puts green and digital regulation first.

Yageo Corp, a Taiwan-based electronic components manufacturer, has raised $650m from an issue of global depositary shares (GDS), boosting the final offer size on strong institutional investor demand.

HSBC has overhauled the structure of its global banking business for the second time in as many years in a push to cut costs and bring its commercial and investment banking divisions closer together.

EU ministers finally managed to find agreement before the Easter weekend on a rescue package to help fund the bloc's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But investors and analysts were far from convinced that critical debates about countries' ability to deal with the economic impact of the crisis and about the wider future of the EU have been settled.

Greece is looking to become the latest eurozone sovereign to sell a seven year syndicated bond, after mandating banks on Tuesday for the transaction.

Schuldschein arrangers are waiting for large German blue chips to launch transactions, to help ease the market’s reopening after the coronavirus. According to market sources, deals are being prepared and are expected to launch in the next one or two weeks.

The wave of UK corporates going to equity markets to raise capital to offset Covid-19 volatility is set to continue this week according to sources. On Tuesday, Hyve Group, the London-listed organiser of exhibitions and conferences, said it was looking at a possible deal.

GlobalCapital has launched a deal tracker for the Schuldschein market during the pandemic, for readers to follow primary issuance in the private debt market.

The private placement market has provided a valuable source of funding in both covered bond and senior unsecured format, German issuers told GlobalCapital on Monday in the wake of a Moody’s report that highlighted the limited use of Pfandbrief for funding commercial lending.

BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole have become the first euro area banks to launch senior bonds for nearly two months. They joined UBS in the euro market on Tuesday, taking advantage of a recent rally in credit spreads across the sector.

Europe’s equity-linked bankers expect to remain active in the months ahead as more and more companies turn to convertible bonds to raise financing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A large positive move in stock prices in the past three weeks has buoyed many market commentators, but equities bankers and investors are concerned that equity valuations still do not reflect the severity of the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. If first quarter results or a worsening of the virus are bad enough to drive markets lower still, sufficient harm could be done to investor sentiment to slam shut a vital issuance window for companies desperate to raise cash.