Switzerland

Swiss telecoms UPC Holding, a Liberty Global subsidiary, brought its second 12 year bond offering on Wednesday, the longest maturity sold in the European high yield market so far this year.

Credit Suisse has finished its second rights issue in two years, having won a high take-up from its shareholders.

Liberty Global’s UPC Holding locked in a coupon of below 4% for a 12 year bond, the longest maturity for a new deal in the European high yield market so far this year.

There has been an explosion of equity block trades in Europe this week, led by a sovereign wealth fund, plus several new capital deals. The IPO market is also busy, with several new deals launched.

After selling Sfr1.5bn of UBS shares on Monday night, GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, returned with another equity block trade on Tuesday – this time to sell a stake in Straumann Holding, the Swiss maker of dental implants.

GIC, one of Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds, has sold a chunk of the stake in UBS it acquired before the financial crisis, through a mandated block trade led by UBS’s own investment bank.

Lonza, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group, has completed its Sfr2.25bn rights issue, to part-finance its takeover of Capsugel, the US maker of medicine capsules, from KKR.

Martin Egan has been elected chair of the International Capital Market Association at the trade body's annual general meeting in Luxembourg, replacing Spencer Lake.

Maroan Maizar, the former country head for Deutsche’s capital markets businesses in Switzerland, has joined Kepler Cheuvreux to work on Swiss corporate finance.

Nestlé made its second visit of 2017 to the Eurodollar bond market on Tuesday, issuing a $300m five year that it managed to price 19bp tighter than a similar deal in January.

UBS delivered a 24% return on equity in its investment bank for the first quarter — without the aid of the flattering equity attribution model analysts have criticised in the past. The bank revamped equity attribution this year so that corporate centre does less of the heavy lifting, meaning a 26% increase in equity attributed to the investment bank.

Shares in Lonza, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, closed 3.8% higher on Wednesday after it launched its Sfr2.25bn rights issue to partly finance its acquisition of Capsugel from KKR, having secured approval from its shareholders at its annual general meeting on Tuesday.