Europe

The European Investment Bank and Nordic Investment Bank kept the strong momentum going in the SSA euro bond market on Wednesday, capitalising on the European Central Bank’s announcement of fresh stimulus last week and a lack of issuance over the summer. However, Joint Laender's deal was only just oversubscribed, which the leads attributed to investors’ hesitance to buy a negative yielding 10 year bond from a less liquid name.

Telecom Italia has returned to the Schuldschein market, but through its Italian listed holding company for the first time. Ever since Italy made tax changes for foreign lenders four years ago, Schuldschein arrangers have hoped that more Italian borrowers would come to the market. But companies are coming to the market for price and diversification above anything else.

Ubisoft Entertainment, the French video games developer behind Far Cry and Assassins Creed, issued a five year €526m convertible bond, adding to the wave of issuance in Europe over the past fortnight.

Liberbank’s inaugural covered bond issued on Wednesday showed that investors are still hungry for paper that offers a positive yield and good relative value. The Spanish deal drew more than twice as much demand as Skipton Building Society’s competing negative yielding transaction, which was the third UK covered bond issued this week.

Barclays has become the second financial institution to issue an additional tier one (AT1) in the sterling market this week, supported by a quiet backdrop in UK politics and healthy investor demand. The issuer was 7.5 times subscribed for its £1bn deal.

Wells Fargo hasn't wasted time in the bond market this week. It launched a euro senior bond on Wednesday, a day after raising sterling debt. Concurrently, Spanish lender Kutxabank was marketing a senior non-preferred bond in euros, its debut in the format.

A strong start to a pair of European IPOs has encouraged more deals into the market. But investors fear being decorated with shares that will underperform as new issuers line up.

Russia’s State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), is planning to add to the spree of new bonds from Russia, hitting the road to market a six or seven year dollar benchmark. The deal will be the first time a fully state-owned company has tried to tap the bond markets since the most recent round of US sanctions against the Russian sovereign in early August.

Nationwide Building Society raised £600m of additional tier one (AT1) capital this week with the help of strong support from sterling investors, some of whom were pleased to see that the UK lender had developed a more efficient method for calling and refinancing deals in the asset class.

The investment grade bond market was noticeably cooler on Wednesday morning, compared to the €7.4bn and €5.4bn issued on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Though calling it quiet would be a disservice, with Wednesday’s issuers looking to borrow €2.5bn. Meanwhile, a bond deal for a fertiliser mine in Yorkshire disappeared down a black hole.

Ukraine’s wildcard new president Volodymyr Zelensky has been making all the market-friendly noises investors could wish to hear, turning the country into a darling of emerging market portfolio managers. But there’s a wasp at the picnic: one oligarch's quest to regain his former bank is threatening the country’s economic future.

No less than three dual tranche corporate bond deals hit the market on Tuesday, as BMW, Abertis, and AbbVie jostled for the attention of investors with €2bn, €1.5bn and €1.4bn deals.