UK

The European Central Bank recommended this week that banks do not pay dividends or buy back shares until the start of 2021 at the earliest. It is also calling for 'extreme moderation' over banker bonuses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Equity bankers have expressed fear that issuing IPOs this autumn is set to be far harder than expected, with Covd-19 showing little sign of abating and a second wave feared in the colder months.

At a consultation on Monday, Gilt-Edged Market Makers and investors were divided on the UK’s proposal for a new 15 year Gilt to be sold through syndication in September.

The UK government’s decision over the weekend to reintroduce a quarantine on travellers from Spain is set to make a rights issue far more difficult for International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), the airline holding company which owns British Airways, according to equity capital markets sources.

Vodafone has planted its flag to lead the 2021 IPO calendar, with the listing of its European towers unit in Frankfurt.

EMEA’s equity capital markets were buzzing on Friday morning after Goldman Sachs placed a 13.2m block of shares in Cellnex, the Spanish telecoms tower company, which allowed the company’s largest shareholder to monetise rights that it intends not to exercise in the issuer's forthcoming €4bn rights issue.

In this round-up, the already fraught relationship between the US and China faces fresh tests, as both countries continue announcing retaliatory measures against each other.

Coventry Building Society (CBS) is racing to price Economic Master Issuer 2020–1, with the help of arrangers HSBC and Lloyds, to meet the huge demand for the deal, which is a hybrid between a master trust structure and a standalone RMBS — the first of its kind. The transaction, set to herald the next step in master issuer structures, is an innovation which could open the door to more financial institutions committing to long-term RMBS programmes, writes Tom Brown.

Agreement in the EU this week on a €750bn recovery fund should remind market participants of the UK’s newfound vulnerability.

Countryside Properties, the UK house builder and urban regeneration company, completed a equity raise on Wednesday evening to repay debt in order to help it grow its business.

Royal Vopak, the Dutch oil and gas storage company, has sold $500m-equivalent in US private placements.

Credit analysts hope that European banks will be able to report much stronger capital levels in the second quarter, amid early signs that risk-weighted asset (RWA) volumes could be lower than expected.