Europe

Investors bid a warm welcome to a heap of new bonds from financial institutions this week, spurred on by the knowledge that the European Central Bank would soon be back as one of the biggest buyers in the market. Bill Thornhill and Tyler Davies report.

The private equity consortium behind the $3.4bn leveraged buyout of UK satellite company Inmarsat is testing the limits of investor patience with exceptionally aggressive terms for $1.125bn of senior notes, potentially leading the high yield market down a slippery slope.

While it is no surprise that a public sector borrower has brought the first floating rate note linked to the euro short term rate (€STR), it was a surprise that a small German agency would bring the inaugural transaction, especially as it is some weeks before the European Central Bank (ECB) is due to begin publishing the recommended new risk-free rate.

SoftBank, the Japanese technology conglomerate, astonished equity-linked bond market participants this week by executing a deft trade, arranged by Credit Suisse, that recovered all its €900m investment in Wirecard, the controversial German payments processing company, while leaving it with upside. Aidan Gregory and Jon Hay report.

The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) sold the first offshore Bolivian boliviano bond last Friday. The currency-linked bond was structured by the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), of which FMO is a part owner, and is part of a wider push to develop frontier capital markets.

It has been an explosive week in the sterling market, with foreign and domestic names raising £2.9bn of debt on the back of £13.05bn of combined demand in the space of just three days. But there are more big tests for sterling funders in near future, with a bond market comeback for the UK’s Metro Bank being chief among them.

Dutch insurers Achmea and ASR Nederland gave investors a rare chance to pick up Restricted Tier 1 (RT1) notes this week, with the latter having gone the extra mile to strengthen liquidity in its existing bonds.

Rating: Baa3/BBB-/BBB

Italian banks from across the spectrum of credit quality have accessed debt capital markets this week, as they enjoy funding costs that might not have seemed possible in the middle of the term of the country’s previous government.

Sirius Minerals, the company that is building a giant fertiliser mine beneath the UK's North York Moors, faces up to six months of uncertainty after it failed to issue a $500m high yield bond that would have secured its financial future, and the UK government refused to provide support to the project. Karoliina Liimatainen and Aidan Gregory report.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has selected banks for a €500m 15 year no-grow water bond, in what will be its longest ever maturity for a green bond.

German Pfandbrief issuers DZ Hyp and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba) enjoyed strong receptions for their €1bn Pfandbriefe issued this week. Bankers suggested that the German market had a good chance to perform.