BBVA

It is a mark of how far the market has come from a barren week at the end of May that not just one, but three deals, totalling €2.75bn, were priced on Friday. The European Central Bank meeting and the expectation of a deal from German pharmaceuticals company Bayer played their part in the issuers’ decisions on timing and the order books justified those choices.

Rating: Aa3/AA-/AA-

The tone in Europe’s corporate bond new issue market continued to strengthen on Thursday, as two issuers came to market and achieved strong sales, despite a wider market that worsened during the day.

Corporate bond issuers enjoyed tighter spreads and strong order books amid an improvement in issuance conditions as they jumped back into the dollar market this week.

The Basque Government will bring the first real test of investor appetite for Spanish public sector risk since a wave of Italy-led volatility hit the eurozone periphery last week, as it opened proceedings on an inaugural sustainable bond — its first issue of any kind in over two years.

Hera, the Italian utility, has signed a green revolving credit facility, laying claim to bringing the first such deal from the country, amid a wave of environmentally conscious loans spearheaded by southern Europe.

Foreign banks operating in the US could be allowed a more flexible funding structure, according to Randall Quarles, Federal Reserve vice-chairman for supervision. It could lower the cost of trapping liquidity and capital instruments in the intermediate holding companies (IHCs) they had to set up to keep operating in the US.

BMW Finance had to negotiate its way through a busy corporate bond market on Monday as it sold a €1.75bn 4.5 and eight year dual tranche offering. It had to pay new issue premiums of around 8bp-10bp but saw strong demand.

German chemicals supplier Lanxess found a surprising lack of demand for its first bond issue since September 2016, which sent bankers scrambling to re-examine their plans for next week's burgeoning corporate pipeline. Lanxess's struggle comes as new issue premiums and how far deals tighten through the bookbuild are being increasingly scrutinised as the market begins to imagine life in the European corporate bond market without the safety net of quantitative easing. Nigel Owen reports.

On Wednesday, German chemicals supplier Lanxess found a surprising lack of demand for its first corporate bond issue since September 2016. Onlookers suggested this is was not a good sign with a heavy pipeline building for future weeks.

BBVA said it paid no new issue concession for a €1bn green bond it issued on Thursday, the largest in the format so far from a European bank.

BBVA tightened in pricing by 15bp for its first offering from a bond framework aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It was able to take €1bn of funding for green assets, the largest such deal in the format by a European bank.