Commerzbank

The euphoria that infused Europe’s corporate bond market from Tuesday to Thursday has cooled somewhat, although investors are still open for business. Bankers had said on Thursday that Friday would bring an interesting crop of deals, but there is only one, for paper company Mondi, rated Baa1/BBB+.

The Republic of Slovenia navigated a much changed euro new issue market on Tuesday, executing a three year bond and tap that required unconventional pricing tactics.

This week, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times – and despite volatility caused by the spread of the Covid-19, a trickle of MTN issuance has managed to slip through into the market.

A brutal sell-off in credit in recent trading sessions has left some market participants questioning whether bank bonds are now ‘more in tune with what they should be’.

Commerzbank reopened the covered bond market on Tuesday by pricing its largest Pfandbrief in a decade, following a meltdown in global finance last week.

Relx, the UK specialist publisher, reopened the European corporate bond market on Tuesday after more than a week without any benchmark issuance. It was a convincing €2bn issue, but Relx had to pay double digit new issue premiums.

Rating: Aa2/—/AA

Rating: Aa1/-—/AAA

Unédic was almost three times covered for a 10 year bond on Thursday, with the leads pointing to the relative value of the trade and the quality of name as the factors behind its success against a difficult market backdrop.

On-looking SSA bankers applauded the European Stability Mechanism’s trade on Tuesday, which managed to get over the line with minimal new issue premium despite sharp moves in the rates market caused by the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Tradition’s rates trading platform, Trad-X, has signed up Commerzbank and DekaBank to its new dealer-to-client central limit order book (Clob) and has 12 more firms in the pipeline.

Relx Finance, the funding arm of UK specialist publisher Relx, has hired banks to arrange a roadshow for a triple tranche bond sale, with maturities out as far as 12 years.