Europe

Hastings gave the sterling bond market some activity on Thursday with a benchmark senior deal, while Provident Financial was talking to investors about its own trade.

Italian energy company Enel sold €1.25bn of new hybrid bonds this week to help fund the repurchase of its hybrids with 2019 and 2020 call dates.

German screws and fastenings wholesaler Würth this week found its domestic investor base had stayed loyal after a three year hiatus from the corporate bond market. However, it also found material offshore interest too.

Two A rated corporates went head to head in the euro corporate bond market on Monday as UK pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline and US electrical systems manufacturer United Technologies Corp both launched triple-tranche deals, with two matching maturities involved in the €4.5bn of bonds.

Italian bank debt was in the firing line this week, after investors became fearful of the country’s political situation for the first time since the election in March.

German chemicals company BASF found substantial demand for its second visit to the corporate bond market to fund its acquisition of Bayer’s seed business.

Danske Bank is looking to issue two tranches of senior non-preferred debt in Swedish kronor, fresh from issuing its first such instrument in euros this week. It had been expected to issue several weeks ago but pulled back from the market.

Sometimes, investors get hit by political events that come out of nowhere. Other times, they walk straight into an oncoming freight train, even though it's blowing its horn at top volume.

The first two days of this week saw more than €10bn of bond issuance, with more than a quarter of that volume made up of three deals sold by auto finance issuers. All three deals managed to achieve new issue premiums of 10bp or less, which was tighter than the majority of deals the week before.

German media company Bertelsmann pulled a €500m seven year corporate bond issue on Thursday as the market showed signs of indigestion after what was already one of the busiest weeks of the year for corporate issuance.

Italian equity markets remain volatile as details of a coalition agreement between the Five Star Movement and Northern League emerge, but ECM bankers are less confident that the volatility will harm Italian IPOs.

Hermes has launched a European direct lending fund, as the investment manager looks to carve out part of a market that has recently reached record highs by volume.