Europe

Seven of the eight benchmark investment grade corporate bonds to have been priced in euros in the last fortnight have been from utilities. And longer dated utility bonds were also among the best performers in the third quarter.

Despite the rise of the far right in the Austrian election, political turmoil in Catalonia and sputtering Brexit negotiations, there is further evidence this week that the IPO market is in great health.

The European Union (EU) is set to tap an April 2031 line on Wednesday, coming on the heels of KfW five year benchmark on Tuesday, that raised €3bn.

Danske Bank has hired a new director for its loan syndications team in London, who was previously a vice-president on ING.

Hapag-Lloyd, the German container shipping company, has raised €352m to reduce its debt after its one-for-14 rights issue won a high take-up from its shareholders.

The €549m IPO of SMCP, the French fashion group, is set to be priced at €22 a share, valuing the business at €1.57bn.

Surteco, a German plastics manufacturer, doubled its initial €100m deal size, entering the Schuldschein market to refinance the acquisition of Probos, and used additional demand to repay an existing US private placement.

Syndicates clashed over the execution of a Coventry Building Society senior bond offering on Tuesday. Bankers away from the deal said the UK firm started ‘extremely cheap’ at initial price thoughts, but a lead manager believed the notes tightening by 1bp in the secondary market on Wednesday morning showed that the deal was priced correctly.

CMA CGM, the French container liner, priced its first bond issue on Tuesday after improving on its triple-C ratings. Investor demand was enough for the issuer to double the size of the deal.

Equiniti, the UK share registrar and payments services company, has concluded its £122.2m rights issue, intended to partly finance its entry into the US market.

Berlin Hyp has become the latest FIG issuer to enter the green senior unsecured market in euros, after Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Mizuho Financial Group opened up issuance from Japan earlier this month.

All four investment grade benchmark corporate bond deals that priced last week were from utilities. On Tuesday, Italian multi-services utility, Iren, and Dutch grid operator, Stedin, took the count to six.