Europe

Covered bond investors are increasingly confident about taking on duration and credit risk as yields are set to be stable and spreads should remain well supported, an asset manager told GlobalCapital on Wednesday.

Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB) has released price guidance on the first benchmark Turkish bank bond since March last year. Books had reached over $2.2bn by midday and the market has been told to expect a $400m deal.

Banco Santander has followed through on its commitment to call an additional tier one (AT1) bond, after extending the life of the instrument a number of times in 2019. The decision comes as favourable market conditions increased the likelihood that issuers will choose to refinance their contingent capital securities this year.

JP Morgan and MUFG have been appointed Everton FC’s financial advisers to arrange roughly £500m ($651m) of financing for the football club’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in Liverpool. One source close to the prospective deal told GlobalCapital “all options are on the table” regarding funding routes.

Spain and Cyprus attracted strong demand for their syndicated bonds on Tuesday, with the former receiving the largest ever order book for a public sector euro benchmark. Italy and Belgium will add to the eurozone sovereign supply on Wednesday after mandating leads for new 30 and 10 year trades, respectively.

KfW and Canada both launched dollar benchmarks on Wednesday, bringing a pair of highly subscribed and tight deals. Following their success, two Asian SSA issuers prepare to join the busy dollar market.

Houlihan Lokey, the US boutique investment bank, has the ambition to become a serious player in the European ECM advisory market after hiring an MD from Rothschild.

The only thing missing from a stellar start to 2020 is a capital transaction from Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Covered bond issuers Bawak PSK and Helaba have mandated leads for deals that are likely to be launched on Wednesday — signalling a slackening in Tuesday’s much faster pace.

BPCE took the lion’s share demand for the six covered bonds issued on Tuesday with its stand out two-part offering that was priced flat to the curve — along with other deals from OP Mortgage Bank, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, UniCredit Bank Austria and Axa Bank Belgium, which issued its first transaction under a new and new and lower rated ownership structure.

Europe’s primary equity-linked market has reopened, with a new €125m convertible bond from Pharming Group, the Dutch speciality pharmaceuticals company.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme) has proposed changes to the European Union’s equivalence framework. While its report is framed as dealing with the framework in general, rather than specifically with the UK after Brexit, many of its proposals would make an equivalence agreement with the exiting state easier to reach if enacted.