UBS

A surge in shareholder activism is providing banks with a lucrative new source of revenue, but they have to tread carefully or risk losing treasured corporate relationships, writes David Rothnie.

UBS has reorganised its debt capital markets business, following the decision of global head Amir Hoveyda to step down from his role. It will merge leveraged finance and DCM, with David Slade heading the combined group in EMEA.

Nexi, the Italian payments company, has fallen by almost 8% on its first day of trading after its Milan IPO last week. High volume selling at the beginning of the day has hurt the stock.

More banks have joined the acquisition loan for the Triton consortium’s buy-out of UK-based satellite tech provider Inmarsat, ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to make a firm offer for the company.

Last week's brief quieter spell for investment grade corporate bond issuance in Europe continued this week, with little appearing on screens. What did appear, however, tantalised many investors. On Monday, Sika, the Swiss chemicals and building materials company, managed to slash its pricing while achieving plenty of oversubscription on its first ever bond issue in euros, as it financed its planned acquisition of Parex Group.

Shares in Stadler Rail, the Swiss maker of rolling stock, gained as much as 12.9% in trading on Friday after it priced its Sfr1.33bn IPO at a discount to its Swiss industrial peers.

MünchenerHyp (MuHyp) issued the longest-ever benchmark Pfandbrief on Thursday, tapping into investors’ thirst for yield amid low interest rates. Investors poured into the book, lodging more demand than for any Pfandbrief issued for at least eight years.

Private equity firm CVC Partners sold a large part of its stake in Indonesian clothing retailer Map Aktif Adiperkasa (Map Active) on Wednesday, taking part in a $296m secondary sale targeted to international investors.

Bank of China sold another blockbuster Belt and Road transaction on Wednesday, raising $3.8bn across eight tranches of notes in five currencies across five bank branches, It was the largest transaction sold under the BRI label.

Commerzbank analysts had been expecting a “very constructive market” in Swiss francs this week, bolstered by supportive cross-currency swaps and an uptick in the secondary market. It is questionable, however, if anybody foresaw the explosion of volume on Tuesday, when more than Sfr1bn ($997m) of new issuance had been priced by early afternoon.

After issuing a £500m seven year bond in March, Glencore repeated the performance, this time in the euro market. It issued a €500m 7.5 year bond that achieved a similar book size and price tightening. Telecom Italia also issued for the second time this year, after losing its Fitch investment grade rating on Friday.

Three Chinese property companies battled in the primary market on Monday with competing supply. While high yield issuers have been able to sell bonds at ultra-tight prices of late, the weight of supply has started to force issuer’s to pay more to borrow.