The Italian loan market, benefiting from an injection of central bank cash, is providing the country’s corporates with increasingly competitive terms and pricing. It’s rise, however, has left private placements in the shade, writes Elly Whitaker.

The last time a newly rated Italian issuer tried to issue a corporate high yield bond was in May — but take a step back and the wider picture points at a resilient, vibrant market with an investor base up for the challenge. Victor Jimenez reports.

Italian corporate DCM bankers are looking forward to a busy 2016. Last year may not have been as active as hoped, but an upcoming raft of redemptions and falling competition from the loan market mean volumes are only likely to go up, writes Nathan Collins

Italy’s economic recovery has not yet encouraged an increase in corporate bond issuance, with Italian companies still focusing more on deleveraging than on raising new finance to support capital expenditure or M&A activity. The result is a striking imbalance between supply and demand in the Italian corporate bond market which has led to new issues from frequent as well as less established borrowers being heavily oversubscribed. In this GlobalCapital roundtable, which was held in December, issuers and intermediaries gathered to discuss the outlook for the supply-demand dynamic in the Italian corporate bond and loan universe.

Balanced budget laws and government-backed refinancings are keeping Italy’s sub-sovereigns out of the bond markets, writes Phil Moore.

The Italian Treasury enjoyed an enviable 2015, as for once the country’s political scene was a beacon of stability, at least compared to certain other European countries. That stability is one of the reasons cited for BTPs outperforming Spanish government debt in 2015 — while Spanish bonds suffered turbulence during a year of regional and general elections, Italy’s government looks like being the first in many years to survive a full term in office. With an executive that has been able to drive economic, legal and political reforms through a parliamentary system notorious for inducing stalemates, investors are hopeful that strong economic indicators could evolve into real growth in 2016. Italy is not immune to the forces that have disrupted markets and macroeconomic outlooks across Europe and beyond — from dwindling liquidity in secondary markets to banks leaving primary dealerships, and struggling emerging markets dampening demand for the country’s exports. But the country also has advantages that many of its European peers lack — not least the unflinching demand for government debt from its vast retail investor base that has allowed it to print some of the largest bonds ever seen in the government debt markets. GlobalCapital gathered together investors, bankers and representatives of Italy’s finance ministry to discuss the outlook for the country’s debt in the international bond markets.