UK

HSBC was looking to issue two tranches of additional tier one capital in dollars on Tuesday, as rates markets moved back into a more stable trading pattern.

The UK is set to announce the world’s first sovereign green bonds for retail investors. The proceeds will help to finance projects aimed at achieving the country’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Fix Price, the discount Russian retailer, priced its London and Moscow IPO on Thursday after managing to secure some of the world’s highest quality investors as cornerstones at the beginning of the week.

Trustpilot, the global review platform, has announced plans for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, continuing the strong run of tech IPOs in Europe.

Barclays is to face a second shareholder resolution on its response to climate change at its annual general meeting in May, urging it to set more ambitious targets to phase out financing of fossil fuels.

HIG Capital has hired a managing director from Houlihan Lokey for its European direct lending platform.

After a poll of market participants at the end of 2020, GlobalCapital can now reveal the winners of its annual Syndicated Loan and Leveraged Finance Awards. GlobalCapital can also reveal the winners of the Private Debt Awards. Regrettably, we still cannot celebrate the awards with you in person, but we congratulate all the winners and nominees in this exceptionally challenging year.

Banks and investors’ claims to be acting on climate change appear to clash with the financing they still provide in the real economy, research showed this week — such as plans to increase fossil fuel production and consumption, even in the UK and France.

The Schuldschein market must adapt if it wants to win back its international borrower base. While competing with public bonds on price may be out of reach, the instrument can take a leaf out of the US private placement’s book and introduce deferred funding.

Look at any bank’s website or hear its CEO speak and you will get a torrent of virtuous words about climate change, sustainability and supporting clients on their journeys to net zero. The same goes for big investors, from BlackRock down, but the windows of their ivory towers are misted up with all the hot air being spouted.

Dyal Capital, the US private equity firm that specialises in buying minority equity stakes in private equity and hedge fund managers, has employed a financing method — private placements securitized on fund cashflows — rarely seen before in its industry, writes Silas Brown.

Financial institutions have ramped up their sales of green debt at the start of 2021, as they look to take advantage of a quiet funding year by building out their environment, social and governance frameworks. This week, nearly all FIG euro issuance arrived in ESG formats.