Europe

Spanish utility Iberdrola had significant success with its debut green hybrid bond in November when it received €3.2bn of orders. However, its second such bond failed to tighten from initial price thoughts when it was issued this week.

As the final week of the quarter approaches, credit markets are limping towards the Easter break, in need of respite after three months of heavy issuance punctuated by flares of volatility. Nigel Owen reports.

Three issuers broke the brief new issue hiatus in the CEEMEA market on Thursday, all starting with wide levels to tempt investors into their books.

Glencore, the Swiss-based mining and commodities group, issued a $500m seven year equity-neutral convertible bond on Tuesday that achieved terms described as very aggressive. It attracted around 100 investors, including a couple of sovereign wealth funds.

Watford Community Housing has raised £200m from a mixture of loan facilities and private debt. Housing association transactions have been “keeping PP agents busy” in a quieter month in the sterling private placement market.

Canadian insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings issued a eurobond for the first time on Thursday, taking advantage of more favourable market conditions.

RHI Magnesita, the Austrian-Brazilian maker of refractory products, has refinanced its debt with a new €305.6m five year term loan.

Covered bond specialists are eager to find out whether the European Central Bank’s lower than expected participation in recent covered bond issues is part of a long term plan or is merely a short term reaction to other events.

LendInvest, the UK online property finance platform, has launched the second deal of the year on the London Stock Exchange’s Order book for retail bonds. The firm is optimistic on the outlook for sterling assets in the retail and property sectors, despite the headwinds faced by some issuers this month.

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) built a book that was more than three times subscribed for its holding company-level senior bond on Thursday, the first such issue compliant with bail-in rules from an Irish bank.

Globalworth, an AIM-listed real estate investment trust focused on Poland and Romania, released initial price guidance for a euro benchmark seven year bond at 3.375% area, talk that a syndicate official away from the note represented around a 40bp pick up over fair value. The talk was later in the morning updated to 3.125%-3.25% with leads saying the deal will price in range.

Ukrainian poultry producer MHP was offering a chunky concession to its own curve on Thursday as it looks to push out its debt maturity profile with a new issue to finance a buy-back of its 2020s.