BNP Paribas

Hamburg Commercial Bank will no longer visit Milan on the roadshow for its new tier two bond, with parts of northern Italy having been locked down to contain the spread of Covid-19. But issuers and investors are still managing to get on with their business amid the mounting chaos.

Denmark's Maersk has signed a $5bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, as Moody's warns that the shipping company is at particular risk in its sector from fallout of the Covid-19 coronavirus

Conditions are changing so fast with the coronavirus epidemic that each day could bring a change in sentiment, but for the time being leveraged finance is staying calm and continuing to function. There is more activity in this high risk corner of Europe’s capital markets than in any other, apart from sovereign, supranational and agency bonds.

Spain was able to raise €5bn of 30 year paper on Tuesday, braving difficult market conditions to close the deal. While the trade was a success, the sharp fall in the order book at the final spread indicated some investors are beginning to push back on price.

H Lundbeck, the Danish pharmaceutical company, has mandated banks for a five year debut euro benchmark from its new bond programme, after gaining US regulatory approval for a new migraine treatment.

Ascential, the UK media and events company, scaled back lenders after its £450m-equivalent bank line refinancing was oversubscribed.

The European Stability Mechanism has requested its primary dealers or ‘market group banks’ to set up entities within the 27 member states of the European Union in order for them to participate in bond auctions by the supranational and its sister issuer, the European Financial Stability Facility.

Spain has announced another trip to the ultra-long end, electing to come to market in spite of volatility sparked by increased fears around the spread of coronavirus.

Three Chinese issuers visited the dollar bond market on Thursday, raising $1.2bn between them.

BMW Automotive Finance’s Rmb8bn ($1.14bn) dual-tranche return to the Chinese auto ABS market this week was a success. The tight pricing is expected to allow other issuers to also lower their coupons, said bankers on the deal.

Intense demand in the Swiss franc bond market for any asset with a positive yield — or even anything yielding more than the penal negative rates on cash — gave a varied group of issuers this week execution that pushed the boundaries — bigger, faster and tighter.

ING left its investors bemused on Wednesday, when it decided to pull the additional tier one (AT1) bond it was marketing on the basis of undisclosed information it had received. After the news of its chief executive’s move to UBS quickly became public, the door was left open for the bank to complete the trade.