Peter Lee

London

Editorial Director at Euromoney

Articles

KfW crypto deal highlights potential and problems of blockchain bonds

Sep 2, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

At the end of August, KfW – one of the busiest issuers in the international bond markets with a 2024 funding programme of €80 billion – issued an unusually small and short-dated bond to just three investors. It would be easy to miss the €50 million deal, paying a coupon of 3.46% and maturing on November 28, 2024, that sole bookrunner DZ Bank sold to DekaBank, DZ Bank itself and Union Investment, part of the DZ bank group. However, it could be one of the most important deals KfW issues this year.
Innovative secondary share sale puts high value on Revolut

Aug 27, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

On August 16, Revolut announced an elegant way for long-serving staff to cash in on their equity ownership in the fast-growing and profitable financial super-app. Ahead of a possible IPO, it has retained Morgan Stanley as placement agent on a secondary share sale that allows employees to divest stock to three institutional investors.
UK challenger banks top customer satisfaction survey

Aug 22, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

It is an odd thing, but every six months the UK government ranks the country’s biggest banks. More precisely, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, in accordance with the reforms that followed its own 2016 investigation into the retail banking sector, asks two independent companies, Ipsos and BVA-BRDC, to conduct surveys of bank customers.
NAV loans are a poor answer to private equity’s struggles

Aug 14, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

Net asset value (NAV) financing, debt raised by private equity funds secured against whole portfolios of companies, has grown fast in recent years, as managers of those funds struggle to sell companies at higher prices than they paid for them. The addition of yet more borrowing onto a business already built on high leverage is a growing worry for investors in PE funds and for regulators.
Revolut’s UK banking licence comes amid exponential growth

Jul 31, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

It’s an odd thing but every six months the UK government ranks the country’s best banks. More precisely, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, in accordance with the reforms that followed its own 2016 investigation into the retail banking sector, asks two independent companies, Ipsos and BVA-BRDC, to conduct surveys of bank customers.
ING hires in investment banking and transaction services

Jul 30, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

It’s not often that a banker invites you, mid interview, to review documents behind a big real estate financing deal his institution has worked on. And Andrew Bester, member of the management board banking and head of wholesale banking at ING, is offering a sight into what just might be the biggest real estate deal in history. ING is a distinguished brand in retail banking.
New liquidity, new investors, new tech transform the loan market

Jul 23, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

Last week, StoneX, the Nasdaq-listed provider of digital marketplaces and clearing and execution services across commodities, foreign exchange and securities,announced LoanMatch. This is a new dark pool for anonymous dealing in European syndicated loans, which is due to go live in September. Investors will be able to enter buy and sell orders in any given loan, without revealing to the broader market their identities, the direction they want to trade or the size of their orders.
UK’s new listing rules ignore investor concerns

Jul 23, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

Next week, on July 29, new rules come into effect designed to encourage more companies to launch initial public offerings in the UK equity market. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority describes this as the biggest change to the listing regime in over 30 years. It is a desperate gamble. The new rules have been under development since the Hill review, launched in November 2020.
The world’s best bank: UBS’s role in last year’s crisis shows just how far it has come

Jul 18, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

A year has passed, and we are still learning lessons about the deposit runs that began in March 2023 at US regional banks sitting on large unrealized losses in bond portfolios funded by flighty and uninsured wholesale deposits. Those runs led to the sudden collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank.
Did Macron kill the Golden Goose?

Jun 19, 2024 | euromoney.com | Peter Lee

Do we now also have to worry about French debt sustainability? There seems to be a pattern emerging here. Back in March, the head of the independent Congressional Budget Office was warning of a potential Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng-style crisis in the treasury bond market if the US does not get its annual budget deficit and total debt burden under control. Perhaps Phillip Swagel had one eye on what’s looming there in November.