Europe

Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) attracted orders worth €2.6bn from 110 investors for its debut €1bn social covered bond on Tuesday — the first from a French issuer. The deal, which was subscribed in half an hour, was priced flat to Caffil’s curve.

Investors backed the return of the Balearic Islands to the bond markets on Tuesday with the Spanish region selling its biggest ever single tranche bond. It was able to attract huge demand despite increasing tensions surrounding Catalonian independence, which could lead to early elections in Spain.

German borrowers are finally warming to the idea of taking out loans linked to environmental, sustainable and governance (ESG) targets, and a confluence of complementary factors could serve to strap a rocket to deal volumes.

The European Council on Tuesday confirmed its position on the review of the European system of financial supervision. It maintained that supervisors should not be funded by private firms, but agreed to give the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) more power. But there is now a rush to find an agreement with the European Parliament before its members go on leave for May’s elections.

Volksbank Wien has mandated leads for a roadshow to market its debut covered bond and BPCE has mandated leads for the second French covered bond of the week. Meanwhile, Moody’s has assigned ratings to the covered bonds of Caja Rural de Granada, which has yet to issue its first deal.

Ramsay Générale de Santé, the French private hospitals operator, is preparing to raise €620m of equity capital to refinance bonds issued to acquire Capio in Sweden.

On Tuesday, Swedish telecoms company Telia sold the longest maturity corporate bond deal of 2019 so far. Telia had not been to the market for nearly two years, but has a history of long-dated issuance.

ING made a comeback in the sterling market on Tuesday, targeting the seven year part of the curve with a senior deal from its holding company.

UK department store chain Debenhams has agreed a refinancing with its existing lenders, giving it an extra 12 months and an extra £40m of headroom, along with certain covenant waivers — but the race is on for a full recapitalisation by the end of the second quarter.

Credit Bank of Moscow has tightened price guidance for its euro five year bond, with books in excess of €800m for the Reg S/144A note — an unusual format for a euro deal, but one designed to provide a fall back option of switching to dollars if pricing for the bank’s inaugural euro bond was deemed unfavourable after feedback.

Latvia came to market on Tuesday morning for a 30 year euro benchmark, reawakening a dormant Central and Eastern European bond market.

GB Group, the UK-based data intelligence firm, won strong approval from investors for its strategic acquisition of IDology, a US company that provides ID verification and fraud detection services.