Europe

The Financial Conduct Authority has written to UK banks warning them against pressuring clients for mandates on Covid-19 equity capital raises using their lending relationship as justification.

Crédit Mutuel Arkéa paid a 'generous' 7bp of new issue premium for a preferred senior bond on Tuesday, taking advantage of a quiet market to attract attention from investors.

The European Commission’s ideas for a “Union Recovery Programme”, based on an internal note seen by GlobalCapital, are “worrying” based on the limited size and possible conditionality attached to the measures, according to two economists.

UBS generated almost as much profit before tax from its global banking and markets operations in the first quarter as it did across all of last year, it revealed on Tuesday. This was despite taking credit losses and marking down exposures. The bank benefitted from a good turnout in FX and rates and its heavy involvement in a shrunken M&A fee pool.

Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) has launched the first negative yielding covered bond since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in Europe, after linking the use of proceeds from the deal to fighting against the effects of the pandemic.

SIX Group, the owner of the Swiss stock exchange, was in the market on Monday night with a sale of shares in French payments company Worldline. Investors poured into the deal demonstrating their appetite for high quality tech firms amid the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.

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.