Europe

Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire and Formula One racing magnate, has been instrumental in pushing ahead with UK car manufacturer Aston Martin’s capital raise, restructured on Friday, meaning the company’s turnaround plan, which includes a rights issue, is still going ahead.

Finablr’s shares have been suspended and the company has warned that it may go out of business just ten months after ts IPO.

The European Central Bank's new stimulus package will lower supply and boost demand for covered bonds, suggesting that ECB president Christine Lagarde will in fact 'close spreads' in the asset class. For now though, valuations remain under pressure and spreads are likely to widen in the short term.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes by mid-March.

Markets expressed disappointment following the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting this week, but some analysts said that the changes made to the terms of its bank funding schemes represented a real war chest to support lending.

Premier Oil’s stock surged by more than 65% on Friday after the company gave an update on its cash position following this week’s equity market slump, a positive for the banks working on its rights issue. However, the deal also hinges on a court case in Scotland.

JP Morgan appoints syndicate head for private markets — RBC loses M&A banker — Mizuho names sustainability head

As the coronavirus pandemic threatens every facet of capital markets activity, trading floors and back offices have emptied in recent days, leading to questions about how efficiently business can be done from home and alternative sites, write Paola Aurisicchio, Jasper Cox, Jennifer Kang and Ross Lancaster.

Governments and central banks failed to prevent fear from taking hold of the capital markets this week, as Covid-19 reached pandemic status. European equity indices faced record falls on Thursday, before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced a $500bn repo operation to combat "highly unusual disruptions" in the US Treasury market. But it is far from clear if such extraordinary intervention will be enough to stop the panic.

Bankers are confident that companies up and down the ratings scale can lean on their lending groups during market volatility. But borrowers in the most stretched groups are not waiting to find out, with some clients already drawing their lines, adding backup loans, and trying to negotiate waivers on debt limits. Silas Brown, Jon Hay and Owen Sanderson report.

The European Central Bank failed to cheer bank debt investors with a stimulus package at the end of a difficult week that saw credit spreads soar. However, some analysts think that the ECB offered more than was immediately apparent, with its moves amounting to €800bn of capital relief.

JP Morgan has appointed James Mazur, a former hedge fund executive, as head of private syndicate in its EMEA equity capital markets private placements business.