BBVA

Thursday’s corporate bond new issue action in Europe confirmed the picture presented on Wednesday: that investors were determined not to let macroeconomic issues bother them, and were piling into new issues. The day was less blemished than the previous one had been by volatility, enabling issuers to get some very tight spreads.

France’s Eiffage has doubled the size of its revolving credit line to €2bn, with the civil engineering construction company becoming the latest name to add social and environmental language to its loan documentation.

European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

The strength of corporate bond demand, after falls in stockmarkets engendered by the US's hardened stance on trade talks with China, will be tested in the US on Wednesday by a $20bn issue for IBM. In Europe, the test could come on Thursday, since a handful of issuers finished roadshows on Wednesday.

After a couple of slow weeks for corporate bond issuance in Europe, the pace quickened somewhat on Tuesday, with two €500m no-grow issues. One was from a familiar name - Carrefour, the French supermarket chain - the other from a new one, Samhällsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden, a Swedish residential property company founded only in 2016.

The Spanish region of Navarre has printed its debut sustainable bond. Navarre is the third Spanish autonomous community, behind Madrid and the Basque Country, to issue a sustainable bond.

Spain’s Merlin Properties has signed a €1.55bn sustainability linked loan, with the real estate company becoming the latest in a long line of names to add green and social elements to their bank funding.

Gaab retires from Deutsche — Bank of America nabs FIG banker from Morgan Stanley — Credit Suisse bumps up IG trading team

BBVA has hired a former MTN banker at Santander as a director in its liability management team.

Rating: A3/A+/A-

After issuing a £500m seven year bond in March, Glencore repeated the performance, this time in the euro market. It issued a €500m 7.5 year bond that achieved a similar book size and price tightening. Telecom Italia also issued for the second time this year, after losing its Fitch investment grade rating on Friday.

The Basque Government was able to tighten pricing by 5bp from initial price thoughts as it received soaring demand for its 10 year sustainable bond on Tuesday — its biggest public issue since 2009.