Pre-migration untagged articles

Norwegian Solar energy group Rec is aiming to raise Eu450m in a rights issue while restructuring its debt through a bond and re-negotiating its credit facilities. Last week, solar cell maker Q-Cells, a competitor and former large shareholder of Rec, tapped the equity-linked market with a Eu250m convertible bond. Renewable energy firms had limited access to equity markets this year, but to what extent will the two recent deals change the sector’s refinancing options? Read EuroWeek on Friday.

Swedish Export Credit took centre stage in an otherwise slow week in the SSA market, issuing its first public bond since September 2007. While the European Investment Bank took just two hours to increase its April 2014 benchmark by Eu2.75bn, SEK's Eu1.25bn five year took two days as investors took their time getting approvals in place for what is virtually a new credit. But its successful execution is expected to tempt other Scandi agencies into the market in the coming days.In dollars the only offerings are a $1bn five year from African Development Bank and a $1bn four year Eurodollar from KfW, to be priced this afternoon at mid-swaps plus 35bp. Read EuroWeek on Friday for full coverage.

UK group Premier Oil and Dutch animal feed firm Nutreco have both signed banks into increased facilities this week, after raising oversubscriptions. Bankers said the borrowers' active role in the transactions and their strong relationship pull helped the deals along, but welcomed the heavy demand for the loans as a tentative sign of recovery. But can the hits scored by these two borrowers lead to a flurry of successes over the next quarter? Read EuroWeek on Friday for the latest on upcoming loan deals.

Commerzbank reported a first quarter net loss of Eu861m last week thanks to the inclusion of Dresdner Bank’s accounts into its quarterly results for the first time.

The European Central Bank has rejected pleas from central and eastern European states for it to use its firepower to boost euro liquidity in the region’s banking system, EuroWeek’s sister newspaper, Emerging Markets revealed.

WestLB must halve its asset base and restructure its ownership in exchange for European Commission approval of its state aid while Bayersiche Landesbank faces a probe into its bail-outs.

The banking industry began an attempt to claw back some of its huge writedowns on monoline-insured securities this week when it sued MBIA, claiming that the firm hived off its structured finance business without enough capital to cope with losses.

The UK’s Financial Services Authority has fined Morgan Stanley £1.4m for failures in its controls after a London-based trader deliberately mismarked investment grade index and index options positions over a six month period, resulting in a $120m write-down.

The German government approved a draft bill by finance minister Peer Steinbrück to deal with the bad assets held by the country’s banks on Wednesday.

Highland Capital Management is restructuring its European branch. The change means the co-heads of the London operation, Appu Mundassery and Jean-Luc Eberlin, will leave the firm.