Coronavirus

Kinnevik, the Swedish investment company, sold a 4.4% stake in German e-commerce company Zalando on Monday night with investors pouring into the trade after the US Federal Reserve boosted secondary markets.

China will start selling the first batch of its Covid-19-themed ‘special treasury bonds’ this week. While it will only raise Rmb100bn ($14.1bn) initially, the overall target of Rmb1tr has raised some concerns around short-term liquidity in the market.

Suddenly social bonds are the must-have financing product for public sector borrowers as they scramble to assist in the battle against Covid‑19 and its terrible human and economic costs.

Policymakers have responded with impressive speed and purpose to ensure that a global health crisis does not turn into a global financial crisis. But what happens now that their cards have been played, and is there a plan for what to do once the great lockdown is lifted?

Generals, and financial regulators, are always fighting the last war. So it proved when the coronavirus slammed into international markets in mid-March. Many of the tools developed in the 2008 financial crisis were deployed to great effect by central banks. The corners of the financial markets that propagated weakness in 2008 passed the test of 2020. But new risks were thrown up, forcing a new round of improvisation. What lessons will be drawn from the Covid-19 crisis?

Lockdowns raised big questions about how capital markets operate. Trading floors — their beating heart — emptied even as the need for the financial blood they pump round the system rocketed. But markets thrived. Now Ralph Sinclair asks how the experience will change the future of work in capital markets.

The Flemish Community has mandated banks to arrange the sale of new seven and 30 year bonds as the Belgian sub-sovereign looks to pump in cash to finance a budget deficit which has arisen from the coronavirus pandemic.

The New Development Bank and Kommuninvest began marketing new dollar benchmarks in the short end of the curve on Monday, with the former set to issue its long-awaited debut deal in the currency to support its member countries from the coronavirus pandemic.

Swedish airline SAS needs Skr12.5bn (€1.2bn) of new funding to get through the coronavirus pandemic. The Swedish and Danish governments have pledged billions more to support it, on top of the revolving credit facility guarantees granted last month, but want “burden sharing” from financial stakeholders in SAS, including holders of its conventional and hybrid bonds.

Cineworld has withdrawn from its proposed acquisition of Canada’s Cineplex, which had been funded by a $1.9bn term loan syndicated in February. With lenders to the transaction sitting on a paper loss of around 30 points, the collapse of the agreement will prove a boon, but break fees, swap costs and litigation could chip away at the chain’s stretched cash resources.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has mandated for a sustainability sukuk, half a year after making its socially responsible investment debut with a green bond. It will use the proceeds to support Covid-19 relief efforts.

The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) is set to access the capital markets to expedite funding for the development of coronavirus vaccine candidates, after receiving a donor pledge from the Norwegian government.