Banks

Achmea was marketing a senior bond on Monday to refinance an outstanding bond maturing in November. The Dutch insurer started with a 'juicy spread', according to some market participants, and gave away a new issue premium of 5bp-10bp to investors.

Intesa Sanpaolo became the first Italian bank to raise funding during the coronavirus pandemic this week. It offered a healthy premium for its five year senior deal, but the bonds have performed very well in the secondary market.

Hong Kong jewellery company Chow Tai Fook is taking a flexible approach to its loan market return during the Covid-19 pandemic, giving banks seven participation levels to choose from.

Kintor Pharmaceutical has notched another success for the healthcare sector, raising HK$1.86bn ($240m) from its IPO after pricing the deal at the top of the marketed range.

Unédic, the French agency responsible for French unemployment support, entered the social bond market on a permanent basis on Friday, launching its new social bond framework under which all its debt will be issued from now on. It christened the new programme with its largest bond in 10 years.

The Province of Ontario raised $1.75bn with a rare seven year dollar benchmark on Thursday. The transaction shared the market with a five year from Japan Finance Organisation for Municipalitities.

Sappi, the South African pulp and paper company, decided just before lunchtime on Friday to cancel a €250m bond issue, judging the price it would have had to pay too high. The failure of this deal contrasts with the vigorous issuance by much riskier companies in the US market.

The UK covered bond market may be about to shrink. Deals maturing this year could well be refinanced at the Bank of England, while issuers could see their mortgage pools shrink as a result of the lockdown.

Barclays opened books on a new tier two capital issue in sterling on Friday, as the financial markets looked set to end a volatile week on a positive note.

Allianz was calling for investment in a €1bn tier two capital issue on Friday, a couple of days after disclosing a tough set of results for the first quarter. The weaker performance largely stemmed from Covid-19, which weighed heavily on the German insurer’s Solvency II capital ratio.

UK utility Western Power Distribution has signed £845m of revolving credit facilities in a rare deal in the UK market not linked directly to the Covid-19 crisis.

Bank of America became the first global commercial bank to print a Covid-19 response bond this week.