Euro

The European Investment Bank achieved its biggest ever order book in euros on Tuesday, as it sold its first seven year benchmark of the year.

The region of Madrid and the European Investment Bank are both marketing seven year euro deals, with the former preparing the first green labelled bond by a Spanish government entity. Elsewhere in the euro public sector bond market, Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust is moving forward with its first bond in the currency.

Italy’s credit rating is dividing analysts. Some believe that it should have been downgraded by S&P on April 24 because of the country's ballooning debt burden, while others felt that the European Central Bank can keep the refinancing risk at bay.

Bpifrance became the first French issuer to sell a Covid-19 response bond on Friday, raising €1.5bn.

Any concerns over whether the eurozone periphery would have market access after Bund spreads yawned wider during the past week were put to bed by a combined €31bn of borrowing from Italy and Spain. The sovereigns paid what was needed to put impressive dents in their ballooning funding requirements, ahead of a hotly anticipated European Council meeting on Thursday. Lewis McLellan and Tyler Davies report.

Rating: Baa1/A/A-

Rating: Baa3/BBB/BBB

Bpifrance is preparing to issue a bond which will be used to provide loans to companies in France to help them overcome the economic difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic.

Madrid is preparing to sell its first green labelled bond as early as next week, expanding on its established reputation as a sustainable bond issuer.

The European Central Bank’s purchase programme will do little to aid agencies in raising cash in the commercial paper market, making little difference to rising borrowing costs and expanding programmes, according to Jérôme Margerin, head of short-term funding at ACOSS, one of Europe’s largest non-sovereign CP issuers.

Spain enjoyed enormous demand for a 10 year syndicated bond on Tuesday, with an order book which was almost double the previous record for a single tranche euro public sector benchmark. Bankers away from the deal said investors were attracted by the big new issue premium on offer.

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.