Europe

Portugal will be hoping to mirror the success of Belgium after the latter smashed records in the public sector bond market on Tuesday with the biggest ever order book for an SSA borrower in euros. Both Portugal and Belgium have announced an anticipated increase to their 2020 funding programmes as result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Equity capital markets are adjusting to life in quarantine, with most bankers saying they are well set up to work remotely during Covid-19 lockdowns. Even syndicate bankers, natural sceptics to home working, are starting to have faith that business can be done at a distance.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, March 30. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Turkey has joined the list of emerging market countries experimenting with quantitative easing programmes in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis engulfing conventional funding markets.

The loans market has been one part of the capital markets that has perhaps unsurprisingly taken to working from home easier than most. Some loans bankers even see a world after the pandemic where one or two days a week working out of the office becomes the norm.

London-listed Russian steel firm Evraz has raised a syndicated loan with lenders honouring the pricing terms agreed before the outbreak of coronavirus that has wreaked havoc in markets.

Italy’s borrowing is set to increase as it attempts to weather the economic impact of coronavirus. But Davide Iacovoni, director general of the Italian public debt office, told GlobalCapital that he did not expect investors to abandon the country’s debt. He also called for some form of European risk sharing.

Some of the largest financial institutions in the eurozone have yet to cancel or postpone their dividend distributions for this year, despite explicit guidance from the European Central Bank urging them to restrict payouts during the coronavirus crisis.

HSBC has promoted two bankers internally to head up its capital markets business in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

The Finnish Treasury said on Tuesday that it plans to increase its short-term borrowing to fund the government’s emergency fiscal package for the coronavirus outbreak.

Central banks are turning on the money taps and slashing rates in an effort to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The below table details the response to the outbreak from many of the world's largest central banks.

Whitbread, the UK hotel and restaurant company behind Premier Inn, has amended a clause in its debt documentation which could have left it liable for technical default. One source said several companies may have to go through a similar amendment process.