Pre-migration untagged articles

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicate deals for less than $250m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of less than 365 days

A repeat of the 2008 liquidity crisis that threatened the global banking system at the time of Lehman Brothers’ collapse could be induced again by incoming banking sector regulations, market participants said this week.

There has been no shortage of thundering demands from bankers and investors for a vast wave of quantitative easing from the European Central Bank.

France’s Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat on Thursday sold a Eu300m increase of a Eu1.8bn 2020 transaction that was the only benchmark covered bond supply this week, with syndicate officials earlier in the week saying that volatile market conditions made major new issue projects inadvisable.

A £300m loan backing Doughty Hanson’s buy-out of cinema chain Vue Entertainment could have been bigger but the private equity firm turned down the largest debt package on offer, following a similar move by Britax last week. Lloyds and Nomura are underwriting Vue’s deal and launched syndication with a bank meeting in London this week. Will successful syndication follow the aggressive bidding? Read EuroWeek this Friday.

Europe’s primary corporate bond market has been shut this week as the eurozone sovereign debt crisis forces borrowers to hold back deals. Concerns have spread to the secondary market. The iTraxx Crossover, which ended last week at 485bp, widened to 525bp on Tuesday, although it at 510bp on Wednesday morning. But the US market remains in good health, with Hewlett-Packard printing $2bn on Monday and Apache Corp and AIG selling $3bn between them on Tuesday. Read more in EuroWeek on Friday.

As markets tremble over debt burdens in Europe, Spanish banks have been granted a funding respite with an extension of the government guaranteed scheme until mid-2011. The extension takes the pressure off several savings banks that had hoped to issue under the scheme before its earlier closing date at the end of this year. Turn to EuroWeek on Friday for full analysis of how peripheral sovereign banks are faring in the volatile markets.

Benchmark covered bond issuance may have ended for the year, amid persistent market volatility and increasing illiquidity. Syndicate officials have been cautious in pronouncing the market closed until 2011 and do not rule out the emergence of a smaller, specifically tailored deal. But several have questioned the prudence of issuing in the current environment and do not expect any further benchmark primary market activity until the New Year. Read EuroWeek on Friday to find out more.

Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli has signed a Eu1.2bn five year revolving credit line as bankers say they are lining up more facilities to launch before the end of the year. Pirelli’s deal was underwritten by a syndicate of 12 lenders and pays a margin of 110bp. Read EuroWeek on Friday to find out how the underwritten deal fared in the market.

Rumours flew this week that troubled pub group Punch Taverns may drop support to its tenanted pub securitisations, sending its shares 7% higher on Monday morning. But noteholders may not roll over as easily as equity holders expect. Read EuroWeek on Friday for more on Punch’s options.