Pre-migration untagged articles

It is with great sadness that EuroWeek reports the death of Christopher Brown, a Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC board director. He died on July 16 in London.

Investors are jostling for bank paper in any format, but so far this week financial institutions are holding their cards close to their chests. Bank of Ireland repeated the formula Irish Nationwide used last week, bringing a government guaranteed September 2010 tap to bond-starved investors. It came at 157bp over swaps, 18bp tighter than Irish Nationwide. The recent second quarter US bank results prompted dollar deals from Citi and Goldman Sachs, and now the market is on the look out for issues from Bank of America and JPMorgan.

AyT Cédulas Cajas sold the first multi-cédulas issue since November 2007 on Tuesday afternoon, a Eu1.45bn five year issue. The Spanish deal had been seen as the biggest test of the covered bond market since the European Central Bank’s Eu60bn purchase programme was announced in early May. Read EuroWeek on Friday for what the deal’s success means for the market and for the latest developments in the ECB’s activity.

There is no sign yet of a summer slump in equity markets with German hospital operator Rhön Klinikum launching a Eu460m rights issue and tyre maker Continental discussing a capital increase of Eu1bn. What’s more, Rhön is setting new standards in terms of discounting new shares. The discount to terp is as narrow as 12%, which undercuts the previous low set by cement maker Holcim. Will equity bankers have to cancel their summer holidays? Read EuroWeek on Friday.

TNK-BP and Gazprom are both lining up new issues, following hot on the tails of KazMunaiGas’s $1.25bn long five year bond last week. Price talk for Gazprom’s long five year is in the 8.25% to 8.5% range. Read this week’s EuroWeek to find out how the Russian pair fare.

Small cap issuers have got deals away under the radar with car dealership Lookers raising £80m in a share issue in the UK and a similar deal coming to market without drawing much attention is the Eu86m capital increase for German insurer Wüstenrot & Württembergische, showing that equity markets remain open even for small scale issuers. Turn to EuroWeek on Friday for the latest update on European ECM deals.

Despite initial doubts it would pick up enough commitments, TNK-BP is set to close it pre-export financing loan by the end of this week, which will make it only the second corporate borrower from Russia this year to successfully tap the retail market. TNK-BP’s deal was launched at $315m but has received $600m-$700m of commitments. Read more on Friday at www.euroweek.com/loans

Investors are crying out for paper across the spectrum, and with the primary market likely to remain open until August, the level of demand has already made transactions this week fly: a Eu300m five year deal from ICAP on Monday attracted a book of Eu2bn, while GE Capital European Funding brought its Eu2bn five year deal close to its secondary curve at 190bp over mid-swaps. To find out how the all the deals in the market this week fared, read EuroWeek this Friday.

The US Treasury this week proposed legislation to toughen rating agency regulation, including a requirement that structured finance ratings be distinguished from vanilla ratings and for issuers to provide necessary information to all agencies, even if they are not ultimately contracted for the rating. EuroWeek finds out how the securitisation industry will adapt to the seemingly inevitable change.

Floating rate notes seem to be the new issue instruments of choice for sovereigns and supranationals this week with Spain issuing a benchmark three year of between Eu1bn and Eu3bn and the European Investment Bank a Eu1bn 7.5 year at Euribor plus 27bp, which is designated a retail/co-operative bond. Guidance on Spain has been revised from Euribor flat to Euribor flat to less 5bp as books already exceeded Eu2.5bn by mid-morning and bankers expect the tight end of the range to be achieved. On the sterling front, the UK linker will be priced tomorrow, and the lead managers hope it will reach £2bn-£3bn. No price guidance yet but market participants are still expecting it to come flat to the outstanding 2037 inflation-linked Gilt. Read EuroWeek on Friday for coverage of all the week’s SSA new issue business