Europe

Mediobanca was greeted with €4bn of demand for its debut offering of non-preferred senior notes on Thursday, extending a run of Italian bond deals in the euro market this week.

Italy and Belgium were the latest eurozone sovereigns to build their largest ever order books for syndicated bonds on Wednesday, with the former coming close to breaking the record demand from a eurozone issuer set by Spain on Tuesday.

Russian brokerage BCS Global Markets has appointed a senior banker from HSBC as head of capital markets and investment banking.

Turkey's primary equity capital markets opened for the first time since 2018 on Wednesday as an undisclosed group of shareholders set out to sell 1.9% of Akbank.

UK private placement advisers and agents are keen to speak to North American investors about their appetite for debt from UK local governments, seen by many as the next source of growth for PPs in Europe after the central government raised the rate at which it lends to them.

Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale (Helaba) and Bawag enjoyed heavy demand for their covered bonds, issued on Wednesday, amid growing concern that January’s usual supply surge is about to come to an abrupt end.

Demand for senior trades from Commerzbank and Raiffeisen Bank International this week reflected a softness in secondary performance, as well as a slowdown in the primary market as European banks enter blackout season.

Commerzbank was able to attract "very high quality books" for its issue of non-preferred senior euro and sterling bonds on Wednesday.

Capital Group, one of the largest asset managers in the US, bought 13.45m shares in NMC Health on January 8, according to a disclosure on the London Stock Exchange. They were worth about £160m. That was the day after a £375m block trade by Saeed Al Qebaisi and Khaleefa Al Muhairi, two of the three controlling shareholders in the UAE health company, which faced criticism from short-seller Muddy Waters of its balance sheet and financial statements in December.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was more than two times subscribed for a €400m tier two on Wednesday, as the state-backed Italian lender used strong market conditions to finally complete the last leg of its capital raising plan.

A combination of factors are driving colossal demand for new issues in the public sector bond market, with Spain setting a new landmark on Tuesday with the largest ever order book in the eurozone.

Emerging markets telecommunications firm Veon, formerly Vimpelcom, printed a $300m tap of its $700m 4% April 2025s on Wednesday from a book of more than $1bn and paying a new issue premium of only 5bp, according to a syndicate official on the tap.