Comment EM and The Cover

Having come to the aid of Main Street stalwarts such as car rental company Hertz, video game store GameStop Corp, cinema group AMC Entertainment Holdings and diner chain Denny’s, it seems that US equity investors are now stepping in to help out that other pillar of American society — CLO managers.

Barclays is aiming to bring its continental European corporate finance business in line with its strength in the UK and North America after receiving a resounding vindication of its strategy, writes David Rothnie.

Foreign ownership of Chinese domestic bonds has hit an all-time high of over Rmb3.6tr ($562bn) — an impressive number but one that warrants a much closer look.

The US Federal Reserve’s market liquidity measures have provided the fuel that has propelled stock markets to new highs. But its core mandate is to fight inflation and unemployment, not to line the pockets of stock investors. If the central bank is wrong about the “transitory” nature of the recent spike in inflation, then it must act.

Long call periods are now an established feature in bank capital products, but the benefits should also apply to the senior market, particularly when it comes to riskier borrowers beginning their MREL journeys.

A small band of committed investors in Tesco has achieved spectacular success with a shareholder motion on healthy food. This should embolden investors to hold issuers to account on a wider range of social matters — and also contains a deeper lesson about how markets bring about change.

“What gets measured gets managed,” goes an old saw popular in sustainable finance circles. If companies, investors and banks, the argument says, collect better environmental and social data, this knowledge will naturally breed improvements in performance.

Progress in sustainability-linked finance for banks has flipped from glacial to dizzying with Berlin Hyp’s €500m sustainability-linked bond this week.

Banks are training their Middle East efforts on Saudi Arabia, where they are hoping to capitalise on growing capital markets activity. The result is a slug-fest for the best banking talent, but firms must learn the lessons of the past, writes David Rothnie.

Renewable energy has been one of the hottest sectors in Europe’s equity capital markets in recent times but investors are no longer just buying companies for their verdant hue. Issuers must now prove they have the financial strength to back their environmental credentials.

Banks shouldn’t let conceptual considerations stand in the way of them issuing sustainability-linked bonds.

The disastrous listing of food delivery app company Deliveroo in London last week sent shockwaves through equity capital markets, with some suggesting it will dampen Europe’s IPO market in the next few weeks. But it needn't be as bad as all that. Investors are keen to take part in IPOs — they just need greater discounts that match their perceptions of risk.