Switzerland

Eurochem, a fertiliser company registered in Switzerland, hit screens last week for a pair of rouble-denominated bonds, raising a combined Rb20bn at a level inside its curve.

Royal Bank of Canada and Credit Suisse turned to the euro market this week to launch bail-inable senior bonds, testing market conditions amid European earnings blackouts and before an expected break for the summer.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired a senior banker from UBS to manage its equity capital markets business in the German-speaking region.

Having successfully accessed the equity, convertible and AT1 market last week to finance its acquisition of Cashgate, Zurich-based Cembra Money Bank made it a full house on Monday when it added a senior unsecured trade to its summer funding spree.

UBS’s decision to create a global team dedicated to private capital markets is symptomatic of a shift in how companies finance themselves and time their IPOs. With vast pools of private capital available, companies are going public later in their lifecycles, leading to stretched valuations and fewer listed companies. Aidan Gregory reports.

UBS has created a new global team focused on private capital markets, giving it more exposure to a rapidly growing area of finance, as companies go public later in their life cycles and the amount of institutional and private money dedicated to private equity has grown and become more sophisticated.

When the Mont-Soleil solar power plant went into operation in early 1992 it was not just the first of its kind in Switzerland: it was the largest photovoltaic installation in Europe.

Cembra Money Bank, the Swiss financial services company, struck a Sfr277m ($281m) deal to acquire Cashgate on Monday, a Swiss consumer leasing and credit provider, from Aduno Holdings.

Well over Sfr1bn ($1bn) of Pfandbriefe and covered bonds was printed within three days this week, rounding off what bankers say turned out to be a surprisingly good first half of the year for the Swissie market.

Unless the EU extends equivalence status to Swiss exchanges before the end of the week, shares from firms in one of the two jurisdictions will not be able to be traded in the other one. This could cause disruption and market fragmentation, although the exact impact is unknown.

Credit Suisse Switzerland issued its debut covered bond from its newly structured programme on Wednesday, achieving a very solid outcome in a short time frame. And the Swiss franc-denominated covered bond was quickly followed by another from the UK’s Nationwide Building Society.

Credit Suisse has published a base prospectus for its newly set up covered bond programme, suggesting it may be ready to make a formal deal announcement in the next few days.