Deutsche Bank

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market faced one of its biggest tests on Wednesday, with France’s Auchan, which operates in the heavily disrupted retail sector, getting a deal away with one of the larger new issue concessions seen in recent weeks.

Any concerns over Italy’s market access were vanquished on Tuesday when the sovereign received €110bn of orders for a dual tranche bond syndication, allowing it to raise €16bn as it makes inroads into its enlarged funding task in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy mandated banks for a new five year to be sold alongside a tap of a September 2050 bond on Monday as it prepares to bolt on a bigger funding programme in order to fund its effort against the coronavirus pandemic. The sovereign will be joined by Luxembourg in the euro public sector bond market on Tuesday.

Aston Martin, the UK luxury car maker, has successfully completed its £371m heavily dilutive rights issue, with a high take-up from shareholders, including a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.

High quality Yankee issuers showed their spirit of adventure by printing front-end trades this week, returning to a part of the curve that has been starved of supply since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

German chemicals and consumer goods firm Henkel cleaned up in Swissies after a 24 year absence this week, while local company SGS ventured out further along the maturity curve.

Chinese hotel company Huazhu Group, previously known as China Lodging Group, is asking lenders’ consent to waive some of the financial covenants on a recent syndicated loan.

High grade corporate bond investors piled into new deals again on Wednesday, with American Honda paying a lower than average new issue premium and Givaudan taking almost €18bn of orders for a dual tranche trade.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) tapped the Indonesian rupiah market for its latest Covid-19 response bond this week, becoming the first SSA to print a response bond in an emerging market currency.

France’s La Poste saw almost €14bn of demand for its dual tranche trade on Tuesday, with the state-owned postal service kick-starting the shortened week in style with borrowers expected to start exploring issuance down their capital structures.

Rating agency Fitch says that the bleak economic outlook has exposed many of Germany’s banks’ weaknesses, prompting it to take action on the ratings of many of them. Deutsche Bank could become one of Europe’s banks most affected by the recession.

Yankee bank and insurance names took centre stage in the dollar market as US banks prepared to give their first insight into the impact of the coronavirus with the arrival of bank earnings season.