Danske Bank

Guarantor: All Danish municipalities and regions

Since Danish transport and logistics company AP Møller-Maersk last visited the bond market, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have downgraded its ratings and put them on negative watch. However, it has still managed to issue its longest maturity deal so far in euros, alongside a tender offer.

The European Investment Bank printed a €5bn 10 year benchmark on Wednesday — the second largest deal of the year from a non-sovereign SSA issuer — dispelling any lingering concerns over the market’s reaction to the Italian election result.

Technopolis, the Finnish office space company, has signed a €518m multi-tranche loan, swapping most of its bilateral bank debt lines for syndicated funding.

Kommunekredit has printed a €1bn five year note — but two more SSA borrowers are lining up further out in the curve.

Since Danish transport and logistics company AP Møller-Maersk last visited the bond market, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have downgraded its ratings and put them on negative watch. However, it still managed to issue its longest maturity deal so far in euros, alongside a tender offer.

The results of Italy’s general election on Sunday indicated swelling support for right wing populist ideologies in Italy, but the euro SSA market appears to have accepted the result with equanimity, although only one borrower has popped its head over the parapet so far.

A debut trade from Stark Group, the Nordic building materials supplier, gave high yield investors their first chance to invest in single-B rated bonds in about a month. The deal announcement arrived while market participants were still assessing the victory of Eurosceptic parties in the weekend's general election in Italy.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

The total issuance of investment grade corporate bonds in February was an underwhelming €14.8bn but the property sector has outshone all others in 2018 and this week was no different as investors had further diversification to consider.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Finnish residential property developer Kojamo and French care home operator Orpea added to the geographical diversity of the property company corporate bonds sold this week with a €500m seven year deal, while frequent issuer RCI Banque sold a dual tranche offering