ING

Lagardère, the French book publisher and travel retail company, has signed a €465m short term government-backed loan and extended its revolving credit facility, as the company shuffles its loan liabilities amid a plunge in revenue.

Craig Meisner, the former head of loan markets for Lloyds Banking Group for North America, has landed a new job at ING Capital.

A pair of senior non-preferred bonds from Swedbank and Société Générale on Tuesday followed Monday’s opener from ING. With three household names now having established pricing points, rarer borrowers are starting to fill the pipeline.

BMW set Europe's investment grade corporate bond market off to a flying start for the year on Monday, printing €1.5bn of debt at or inside fair value. A range of borrowers are said to be lining up trades in the German vehicle maker's slipstream.

ING kicked off the financials market in euros on Monday, as the Dutch bank looked to extend out its callable curve at a holding company level, and with minimal new issue premia on offer, a slew of deals is set to follow.

The European Central Bank's various purchase programmes are set to continue shaping covered bond issuance next year, but away from the reach of the ECB, more niche markets are expected to flourish. Collected below is a selection of GlobalCapital’s covered bond outlooks for next year.

Trig, the London-listed renewable infrastructure investment firm, has signed a £500m loan with its margin linked to Sonia rather than Libor, as loans bankers try to encourage borrowers look at their loan documents soon to avoid bottlenecks next year.

Nobody will forget 2020 in a hurry. It was the year in which a coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, created economic chaos and forced central banks into swift action. The resulting measures helped to underpin financial markets, bringing yields from record highs in March to record lows in December. But the outlook has always remained uncertain for banks and insurance companies, whose balance sheets are yet to feel the full impact of the crisis. In such a testing year, GlobalCapital wanted to reward the bond deals that achieved stand-out results for issuers — in terms of pricing, execution and timing. The winners are presented here.

European banks passed a real-life stress test in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic threatened to topple the economy. The experience has improved the standing of subordinated debt, which is becoming more important for issuers and investors alike. Frank Jackman reports.

The Swiss National Bank said it is “willing” to increase the scope of its foreign exchange interventions to keep the Swiss franc’s value down, despite the US Treasury labelling it a ‘currency manipulator’ this week.

Hungary has no plans to issue wholesale bonds in foreign currency markets next year, having raised more debt than expected in euros and yen in 2020.

The European Banking Authority has warned the market to expect a sharp deterioration in asset quality next year, after publishing a wealth of new information on provisioning practices.