Free content

The spin-off of Traton, the trucks division of Volkswagen, has been relaunched after the IPO was postponed earlier this year due to volatility caused by the trade tensions between the US and China. Traton may not excite many growth investors, but it is a rock solid German industrial asset that isn’t trying to persuade investors it is anything else, unlike a string of recent flotations in the US and Europe.

Fiat Chrysler spent five months trying to seal a deal with Renault — and then ran out of patience in five days. Either the deal is weaker than it looks, or Fiat's John Elkann should take a deep breath, practise smiling and try again.

Umicore, a Belgian materials technology and recycling group, has sold US private placements via MUFG, according to sources. Continental European borrowers appear to be ramping up activity in the US private placement market once more, with Umicore following Brussels Airport and Ipsen.

In this round-up, US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin called the talk with Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang ‘candid’ on Twitter, the Mainland warned domestic tourists and students against planning trips to the US, and both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered predictions for Chinese GDP growth thanks to trade tensions.

A new section of the Schuldschein market is emerging, thanks to a virtuous circle. Property companies, until recently largely absent from the market, have begun to issue Schuldscheine, and these are attracting insurance companies, which rarely invest in the product because yields are too low.

Facebook has announced more details of its planned cryptocurrency payments system, GlobalCoin, and they are not likely to please the crypto community

The European Central Bank’s cheap lending programme for European banks will prolong the lives of some, but not cure them.

DZ Bank launched InGen this week. The new medium term note (MTN) trading platform aims to simplify the reverse inquiry process.

Over the years I’ve had many a drink at the Captain’s Bar. As Tai Tai so readily points out, I’m solely responsible for keeping the place open.

UK broker finnCap Group has hired Graham Cooke and Krishan Raval from Royal Bank of Scotland and Livingstone Partners respectively.

Schuldschein arrangers have been telling prospective borrowers to make spread ranges more attractive for lenders, if they would like the full attention of the market. With over 20 deals in the market, smaller lenders have to choose which credits to work on, often at first glance — and will be far more likely to ignore any borrower that does not offer good margins.

Buyers of Russia sovereign bonds could get burned as the US contemplates new sanctions against the country. But it seems they and Russia's public debt officials have not made it to the end of HBO's Game of Thrones. Had they done so, they would have learned a valuable lesson. They must do so quickly.