Europe

A trio of supranationals harnessed a lack of sterling supply to reopen the market this week. The World Bank brought the first fixed rate supranational deal since August, while the Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank both reopened Sonia-linked notes.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) raised £4bn after it reopened its 2054 Gilt this week with market participants signalling their preference for the maturity rather than even longer maturities, said chief executive Robert Stheeman.

Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Ireland this week printed a bond with what leads said was the lowest ever yield in Swiss francs from an Italian issuer. Following successful outings earlier this year in euros and yen, Italy’s largest banking group by assets turned to Swiss francs on Tuesday with a Sfr225m ($227.3m) five year senior trade that was also the first from an Italian borrower in the currency this year and the largest since the financial crisis.

A pair of Eastern European corporate borrowers are in the market for dollar paper on Thursday, taking advantage of excellent market conditions to secure cheap funding.

BMW Auto Finance (China) is planning a comeback to asset-backed notes on September 17, and will replicate the structure of its April debut in the market.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEX) surprise £31.6bn takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is being hailed by some ECM bankers as a complementary acquisition that will bring markets in the east and west closer together. But the political fires raging in London and Hong Kong have put the proposal’s success in serious doubt, write Jonathan Breen and Aidan Gregory.

Swedish agency Kommuninvest doubled the size of its June 2023 green bond on Tuesday through a Skr3bn ($309.8m) tap. The tap was issued with a negative yield — rare for the Swedish krona market — and is the issuer’s first negative yielding green print since October 2016.

The amount of assets held by EU banks grew last year for the first time since 2015, according to data from the European Banking Federation, which also found that financial institutions were continuing to build up their capital and profitability levels.

In the nervous last day before the European Central Bank's much-hyped monetary policy announcement on Thursday, only two corporate bond issuers brought deals. Both Orange, the French telecoms group, and Worldline, the French payments group carved out of Atos.

JP Morgan this week issued a €400m cash-settled exchangeable on LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate, in its latest synthetic outing, raising cheap funding while possibly hedging a derivatives transaction.

Kernel, a Ukrainian grain and sunflower producer, is set to secure yet another credit facility, alongside an amend and extend deal it recently signed. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will provide up to $80m of the total $300m facility, as the development bank continues to support Ukrainian corporates.

The prospective growth of green and sustainable covered bond funding, and the Covered Bond Directive, were key topics at the well attended European Covered Bond Council’s 30th plenary session, held in Munich on Wednesday, especially with respect to the Pfandbrief market, which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.