Europe

Investec Group has cancelled the IPO of its asset management division Ninety One due to extreme market volatility, although the listing and demerger of the unit will still go ahead as planned, according to a stock exchange filing.

ECB president Christine Lagarde used the meeting on Thursday to effectively distance herself from financial markets, saying 'we are not here to close spreads'. Despite a number of 'smart ideas', the absence of monetary promises have caused credit and peripheral spreads to widen.

Finablr, the parent company of Travelex, has issued a warning that it may struggle to access financing due to the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus and its association with NMC Health, causing its share price to slump to a record low.

Aston Martin, the troubled UK car maker, was set to launch a rights issue process next week, but severe equity market volatility means that the company’s shares are now trading below the subscription price in the capital raise. Sources are now questioning whether a deal is viable.

The Belgian region of Wallonia has decided to conduct the investor marketing for its euro sustainability benchmark solely over the phone rather than by attending meetings as the Covid-19 pandemic worsens.

With primary bond markets all but shut, thanks to the volatility caused by the spread of the coronavirus, banks are expected to rely more heavily on “cheapest to deliver” — and more reliable — sources of funding provided by central banks and the covered bond market, bankers told GlobalCapital on Thursday.

EU supervisors plan to ease the regulatory pressures on banks during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing them to temporarily breach capital and liquidity buffers to carry on lending to the real economy.

Spreads on bank bonds were sent shooting wider again on Thursday, caught up in further negative news around the Covid-19. But market participants are still unsure about how much of impact the pandemic will have on bank credit quality, with the sector already facing pressures over profitability.

Patrick Porritt has left Credit Suisse, as the bank promotes new faces.

Global stock markets have succumbed to panic in a violent and historic sell-off that echoes the worst days of the 2008 financial crisis thanks to the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, and equity capital markets are shuttered in response. However, ECM bankers are focusing now on the "other side of the tunnel" and rights issues for cash-strapped clients.

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not change the lending levels for local authorities in his Spring Budget — apart from cuts to borrowing costs for social housing projects — keeping alive the prospect of capital markets providing UK councils with a cheaper financing alternative.

Members of the European Banking Federation have called on supervisory authorities for help through the ‘temporary struggle’ of the Covid-19 pandemic, asking them for looser capital and liquidity requirements and special treatment of lending impacted by the virus.