Europe

Samir Assaf is to step down as chief executive of HSBC’s global banking and markets (GBM) business in the New Year, as a prelude to a restructuring of the division.

Soaring stock markets and looming fear of an economic slowdown are prompting more investors to look at adding convertible bonds to their portfolios.

Three bankers have recently joined Natixis’s telecom industry group. Two are in Paris and one is in Singapore.

FIG bond funds are turning away from longer dated deals to take a more defensive stance in the market, after an impressive year in terms of returns.

Yorkshire Water flattened the long end of its sterling bond curve on Tuesday, as investors remain content with UK risk, as long as the Labour Party looks unlikely to win the general election on December 12.

Industrials company Mytilineos is trekking around Europe, marketing half a billion euros of senior notes. This marks the first time the Greek conglomerate tries to tempt international high yield investors, possibly signalling growing global ambitions.

LEG Immobilien, the German property company, marketed a multi-tranche bond on Tuesday. Investors looked at the curve of domestic rival Vonovia to divine relative value.

UK TV production company All3Media followed French insurance broker April in attempting to improve pricing on a loan signed just six months earlier, opportunistically looking to lock in a tighter margin before the market closes for the year.

Investors showed some price sensitivity when confronted with the State of North Rhine Westphalia’s (Land NRW) dual tranche sustainable offering on Wednesday. Nevertheless, compatriot issuer Rentenbank will add to euro SSA supply this week after mandating banks for a new 10 year benchmark.

The sterling public sector bond market was alive on Tuesday as the UK sold the penultimate syndication of its financial year and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations returned to the currency for the first time since January 2018.

A FIG syndicate manager has left UBS in London as part of a much wider reorganisation. This has boosted syndicate staffing levels in Frankfurt, among a number of sweeping changes.

German supermarket group Rewe has entered the Schuldschein market, looking for at least €300m to pay in part for its acquisition of German wholesaler Lekkerland.