Europe

Surging equity markets and a spate of strong block sales have given equity investors a boost as they approach the end of the year.

Two senior French equity capital markets and coverage bankers who left Société Générale two months ago have joined arch-rival BNP Paribas.

The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority has handed three Citigroup subsidiaries a fine of £43.9m for problems with its regulatory reporting, in particular in relation to one of their capital and liquidity positions.

HSBC’s anticipated cuts to its global banking and markets (GBM) division may make sense. But they will not be easy to pull off smoothly.

Chinese power company SDIC Power Holdings is moving forward with its plan to list global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange to fund global expansion and its clean energy drive.

Turkey's Garanti Bank has raised an $800.7m-equivalent loan refinancing, which was oversubscribed and welcomed new participants.

Grenke priced an additional tier one (AT1) bond on Tuesday, enjoying strong appetite from domestic investors. The German lender raised €75m, an additional €25m compared with the expected size.

Index Ventures took advantage of a buoyant atmosphere for accelerated trades on Monday night, with a €205.5m block in Dutch payments firm Adyen at a tight 1.5% discount and without a restriction preventing the seller from further disposals in the future.

The European Central Bank has been increasing its proportion of covered bonds relative to other assets bought through its asset purchase programme (APP). Bank research analysts expect that the ECB’s presence will be even more keenly felt in 2020, with covered bond redemption volumes set for a steep increase and with the central bank free to buy at levels below the discount rate.

Ermewa, a train lessor owned by France's state-owned railway company SNCF, is set to sell private placements to a collection of six institutional investors — none of which are from France.

GlobalCapital understands that Germany is finalising plans for the issuance of its debut green bond, which will be sold in the first half of next year alongside an ordinary Bund with the same maturity and coupon.

BPCE appealed to a wide range of investors by adding a green element to its preferred senior bond on Tuesday. The trade was met with hefty orders, even though investors are showing signs of winding down for the year.