Europe

As many as 15 to 20 UK local authorities are considering come to the US private placement market in the first half of 2020, according to three investors, after the UK Treasury decided in October to raise the cost it charges councils to borrow from the central government.

This year GlobalCapital has reported extensively on the various debt capital markets technology platforms being developed by both the public and private sectors. But which will come out on top? We should get an answer in 2020.

Big European investment banks pivoted towards the Americas during 2019 in an attempt to boost revenues and position themselves for the next downturn, writes David Rothnie. With large M&A across the industry still off the table, banks are finding scale through joint ventures and alliances.

The average number of primary dealerships in the European Union has dropped to equal the lowest on record, according the Association for Financial Markets in Europe’s latest government bond data report.

A study from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has found that the premium that banks must pay to issue bail-inable debt is heavily pro-cyclical, compelling issuers to take advantage of “good times” to build up their levels of loss-absorbing capacity.

This year is shaping up to be the most lucrative on record for bank capital funds, as they look set to surpass the annual returns racked up during stellar conditions two years ago.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are increasingly moving into local currency funding. Now medium-term note (MTN) dealers need to dust off their EM currency investor Rolodexes, as this shift offers a much-needed business opportunity for them.

Financial specialists will have two years to work out how to implement the European Union’s Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities, which now looks certain to become law in the coming months. But investors, companies and banks are likely to start using the huge document much sooner than that, in a wide variety of ways.

Greencoat Capital, the investment manager of London listed funds Greencoat UK Wind and Greencoat Renewables plc, is eying a strong pipeline of acquisitions in the UK wind power market. However, green-hungry equity investors may have to wait a while before seeing further capital raises from the firm, its chief executive, Stephen Lilley, told GlobalCapital.

Amid a grim outlook for their profitability, European banks have been looking at all manner of ways to cut costs. Bank capital investors should not be surprised if their next target is debt interest. That may mean banks cannot be relied on to call bonds as expected, just to maintain good relations with investors.

A €200m bond add-on for UK-based car maker Jaguar Land Rover, announced on Tuesday, follows €800m of unsecured notes issued in mid-November. Jaguar was drawn to a balmy post-election market that rewarded it with favourable pricing and encouraged it to increase the deal.

Shares in Corestate Capital, the Luxembourg property company, rose rapidly in trading on Tuesday after founder Ralph Winter had sold a 14.1% stake in a €96.6m block trade on Monday night that was allocated to a small number of investors.