Europe
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Santander UK took advantage of improving sentiment in the euro market to launch a new senior bond from its holding company on Friday, while Hamburg Commercial Bank announced its intention to raise tier two capital. -
Two large Moscow listings moved closer to launch this week, a boost for Russian equity investors who have not seen any large IPO activity since the Detsky Mir listing in 2017.
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BMW Automotive Finance’s Rmb8bn ($1.14bn) dual-tranche return to the Chinese auto ABS market this week was a success. The tight pricing is expected to allow other issuers to also lower their coupons, said bankers on the deal.
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Twelve of the largest global investment banks reduced their headcounts in equities by 10% last year, leading to one of the “steepest declines in years” in the number of investment bank employees, according to analytics firm CRISIL Coalition.
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Intense demand in the Swiss franc bond market for any asset with a positive yield — or even anything yielding more than the penal negative rates on cash — gave a varied group of issuers this week execution that pushed the boundaries — bigger, faster and tighter.
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ING left its investors bemused on Wednesday, when it decided to pull the additional tier one (AT1) bond it was marketing on the basis of undisclosed information it had received. After the news of its chief executive’s move to UBS quickly became public, the door was left open for the bank to complete the trade.
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HSBC’s corporate finance staff have survived its restructuring largely unscathed, but the more ambitious among them will see the bank’s plans as a missed opportunity, writes David Rothnie. And with no answer yet on the identity of the next full-time CEO, the uncertainty is not over.
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Three banks seized a favourable backdrop in the bond market to sell senior bonds this week, finding a warm welcome for maturities from three to six years.
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Two SSA borrowers hit screens on Wednesday with green euro benchmarks, following a successful outing by Madrid, which saw the bond’s sustainability feature driving the spread to the tightest achieved at reoffer by a Spanish region.
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The euro market, unlike the quiet dollar market, is going from strength to strength for SSA borrowers. However, the tight spreads are starting to make their presence felt, with investors starting to push back.
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BNP Paribas this week set a new record low for an additional tier one (AT1) coupon issued from a European bank in the dollar market, raising $1.75bn amid heady demand for the product. Iceland’s Arion Bank was also in the market, chipping in with a $100m deal ahead of beneficial domestic tax changes.
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