Barclays

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BPCE and HSBC paid a small concession to access the sterling senior market this week, but both were happy to do so. The French firm targeted diversification, while HSBC went for size.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market had a more relaxed pace on Thursday, though two issuers brought seven year green bonds: Italian railway company Ferrovie dello Stato and Neste, the unrated Finnish oil refiner which is transitioning to produce biofuels.

Barclays and Standard Chartered gave euro investors rare opportunities to build subordinated exposure to UK banks this week. The issuers were looking to benefit from strong market conditions during a more stable trading period for interest rates.

National Grid, the UK utility, is planning a loan-funded £7.8bn acquisition of the UK’s largest electricity distribution business from US firm PPL Corp. The deal could see £2.7bn of the utility’s assets sold to PPL.

The sterling corporate bond market had three visitors on Wednesday, making it the busiest day this year, and raised a combined £1.565bn, an unusually large amount for corporate sterling issuance.

Paragon Banking Group this week became the first UK lender to launch a subordinated bond in an ESG format. The bank was looking to replace its only outstanding tier two with a new green-labelled transaction.

Europe’s high grade primary bond market was pumping out deals with double figure new issue concessions on Tuesday, though German real estate company Vonovia’s planned debut green deal will test whether ESG demand is still rampant enough that the borrower won't have to offer extra.

African Development Bank hit the market with a five year benchmark on Tuesday — the first sizable deal at the tenor since early February. The deal set records for an AfDB five year, the largest ever size, the largest order book and pricing with its tightest spread to mid-swaps.

US private equity group Indigo Partners has reduced its stake in Wizz Air, the Hungarian low cost airline, through an accelerated bookbuild.

Standard Chartered gave euro investors another rare opportunity to build exposure to UK subordinated debt on Tuesday, as it followed Barclays in issuing a tier two transaction in the currency.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond issuance pipeline is starting to swell for the week, with syndicate bankers confident that there is plenty of demand despite order books shrinking in the last week.