Austria

Immofinanz, the Austrian commercial real estate company, has raised €356m via the sale of new shares and mandatory convertible bonds to strengthen its balance sheet and take advantage of growth opportunities that the Covid-19 global pandemic has created.

Uniqa Insurance has become the first European insurance company to take advantage of a change in the way in which S&P looks at capital quality, pricing a new short call tier two in euros on Thursday.

Assicurazioni Generali and Uniqa Insurance are each looking at selling tier two capital from their green bond frameworks, using a quieter period in the new issue markets to explore more complicated and multi-faceted transactions.

A worsening in credit conditions has squeezed some borrowers across EMEA out of syndicated loans and into the bilateral market. As syndicated loans bankers face another year of disappointing figures, market players are split over whether this trend will leave a more permanent dent in volumes. Mariam Meskin and Jon Hay report.

Investors flooded the books for Austria’s latest foray into ultra-long debt, with more than €17bn of orders for a bond maturing in 2120 with a yield of only 88bp. But despite the clear appetite for duration, some are concerned that recent, unprecedented monetary stimulus will lead to inflation, writes Lewis McLellan.

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Austria returned to the 100 year part of the curve — a tenor it has made its own — receiving its strongest ever order book for the maturity.

Austria mandated banks on Tuesday to lead its second century bond, in what will be a litmus test for investor appetite in the ultra-long end of the curve since the outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis.

Austria and Belgium could bring syndicated transactions as early as next week, according to SSA bankers, after both sovereigns recently announced bigger funding programmes in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Green bonds made up the majority of the supply in the euro bank bond market on Thursday, with Hypo Noe and Santander capitalising on strong demand for the asset class.

Stephan Gimpel is leaving Citi to pursue an opportunity in fintech, after 14 years in the US bank’s debt capital markets business.

Raiffeisen Bank International launched a tier two bond in euros on Tuesday with investors still showing strong appetite for risk. But a smaller order book for the trade suggested that market conditions might be softening compared with recent trading sessions.