Euro

For the first day this year since January 10, investors had a choice of three benchmark new issues in the investment grade corporate bond market. All three issuers were BBB+ rated, but the variety of tenors and spreads meant none of the deals were directly competing. However, new issue premiums have increased after the recent bout of volatility.

French property company Icade saw the announcement that the 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Paris as a positive for its portfolio in the French capital. On Monday it sold its fourth corporate bond in two years, creating a steady redemption profile beyond the date of the Games.

In July 2017, German property company Grand City Properties announced a tender of its 2021 bonds alongside a new nine year issue. On Monday it repeated the process, offering to buy what remained of the 2021 bond it didn’t buy in July and adding a tender for its 0.25% 2022 convertible bonds.

The Autonomous Community of Madrid this week made a triumphant second visit to the socially responsible investment (SRI) market as it printed a deal double the size of its debut last year. Further issuance from the borrower — in conventional and SRI format — is likely to come soon, although in private placement (PP) format. But there may be further SRI issuance from some of Madrid’s Spanish peers.

Rating: Baa2/BBB+/BBB

Rating: Aa1/AA-/AAA

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia showed that the euro long end is open for core SSAs despite wider market volatility on Thursday, but there was a more testing time for Greece in secondary.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday brought the first 20 year euro benchmark of the year from a core eurozone issuer, for which leads said the “stars aligned”. A sell-off in rates, core SSAs stability in the face of wider market volatility and a healthy spread over OATs all helped the deal, they said.

Beni Stabili printed a “gutsy” investment grade corporate trade at the start of the week. The BBB- rated Italian firm managed to attract investors despite plenty of background noise, though bankers said it may send other prospective issuers mixed messages.

German car rental and leasing company Sixt sold just the second corporate bond issue of the week when it copied the format of its four previous deals, which the company has sold at two year intervals.

Spanish regional issuers are in discussions with the Autonomous Community of Madrid in an effort to add their names to the list of Spanish public sector SRI bond issuers.

ANZ raised €750m this week from its first bond aligned with the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), marking only the second such deal globally.