Europe

Société Générale continued the streak of French bail-in bond issuance on Wednesday but had to pay a higher new issue premium compared to its compatriots.

French president Emmanuel Macron may have extended the country’s Covid-19 lockdown until May 11 but equity bankers took hope from his address to the country this week.

The Italian Treasury has updated the guidelines for its debt management strategy for 2020 as it comes to terms with additional financing needs from Covid-19. There are plans for more syndications, bigger auctions and more products for retail investors.

Sanlam Investments has been appointed to manage three Tideway Investment Partners funds, and four credit specialists have moved over from Tideway to Sanlam.

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.