Europe

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WM Housing followed the successful path of its fellow UK housing association, Notting Hill Housing Trust, when it announced a copycat benchmark sterling 31 year bond on Friday.

Dutch grid operator Stedin, formerly part of Eneco, was one of several issuers that met with investors before announcing deals this week. It had been discussing a sub-benchmark three year to five year floating rate note and a benchmark eight year fixed rate note, for what was essentially its bond market debut.

French engineering services company doubled its initial launch size to just €450m, joining the growing proportion of Schuldschein deals closing over €200m. But, some question whether the growing number of larger companies accessing the German private placement market might affect funding chances for smaller SMEs

Investors in public sector dollar deals have found themselves forced to accept brutally tight pricing as issuers drive in spreads to round off their funding programmes.

Corporate bonds that are executed on Fridays are often brought then to give issuers some space in crowded markets, but in an otherwise quiet week French electricity grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité had little competition for investor attention last Friday as it printed the longest dated deal of the week.

After utility companies dominated the investment grade benchmark corporate bond market last week, Iren followed this week with a debut green bond that was priced tight to its secondary curve.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has warned banks in Europe that any debt they issue under English law may cease to count towards the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) as soon as the UK leaves the European Union.

Is this bond expensive or are BTPs cheap? That was the question investors considering Wednesday’s debut corporate bond issue from Italian supermarket chain Esselunga had to answer. But there was more to come as an Italian high yield borrower also raised funds at sub-2% writes Nigel Owen.

Norwegian state-owned grid operator Statnett priced its debut benchmark euro corporate bond on Wednesday, opting to go longer than the 10 year tenor many of the recent utility issuers chose.

PKO Bank Polski issued in Swiss francs for the first time in five years this week amid an improving basis swap out of the currency that is opening up a window for deals.

BNY Mellon and HSBC are building a network to match trades in the corporate bond market using custodian information.