Europe

Dechra Pharmaceuticals, the UK veterinary pharmaceuticals company, has entered the US private placement (US PP) market, according to sources, in a debut set to test institutional appetite for the sector.

SDIC Power Holdings has won final approval from the Chinese financial regulators to list in London. It will be the second company to float using the city’s Stock Connect scheme with Shanghai.

The Public Works Loans Board has given investment banks and asset managers the Christmas present they have been praying for for years. By hiking the cost of loans to local authorities, it will force them into private capital markets. Big mistake.

The Swedish krona MTN market’s bumper year received a further boost as nuclear power plant operator Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) returned to the MTN market for the first time in five years to place a pair of notes in the currency. However, the return may be short lived, as TVO has plenty of access to cash and will take an opportunistic approach to future issuance.

The Bank of Japan appears to have softened its stance on the country’s banks buying foreign CLOs, reporting that credit risk in the asset class is “subdued on the whole” following a slowdown in investment in the asset class.

Deutsche Bank plans to sell a structured conditional pass-through (CPT) covered bond that is packed with commercial mortgages and has a double-A rating. The collateral-efficient funding makes perfect sense for the issuer and, in a negative yield environment, it could also potentially be interesting for certain investors.

Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols is planning to take advantage of balmy market conditions with a refinancing package that will replace most of its outstanding debt. The package will consist of a $3bn term loan B in dollars, a $1.6bn TLB in euros and $1.25bn of senior secured bonds issued in euros.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt (Spabol) took advantage of positive swap yields to issue a well-subscribed €1bn 10 year this week. Danmarks Skibskredit and mBank are likely to follow soon, having each mandated lead managers for covered bond roadshows.

Equity capital markets bankers are hoping that recent market optimism, driven by hopes of a trade accord between the US and China, will provide a positive backdrop in which to do accelerated transactions before the end of the year.

Leads on Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s two part dollar and euro covered bond were criticised for not being transparent with the order book update, which was expressed without giving the currency of the demand, but in the final analysis, the sale of the high yielding euro portion went better than expected.

Wholesale revenue increased in Nomura for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the most recent quarter, the bank said on Tuesday, helped by a sturdy rates business.

UniCredit’s search for a more efficient corporate structure shows how an incomplete Banking Union is beginning to weigh on pan-European financial institutions.