Europe

ASR Nederland picked banks to arrange the sale of a restricted tier one (RT1) note in euros this week, becoming the first insurance firm to consider issuing the rare debt format in a core currency. Investors are hungry for more hybrid capital trades from European insurers, but market participants are unsure whether or not the first euro RT1 will pave the way for a glut of issuance. Tyler Davies reports.

The minutes of the European Central Bank’s meeting of September 6-7 reaffirmed the central bank’s intentions to gradually scale back its quantitative easing programme in 2017, but offered little in the way of new information.

French optician Alain Afflelou is considering a yield of about 4.5% for its first bond since suspending plans to float on the Paris bourse. Investors branded the figure “punchy”.

French telecoms company Altice has opened books on a €500m 10.25 year non-call five year senior bond, days after launching a leveraged loan.

German filter maker Mann+Hummel has joined the flock of borrowers issuing green Schuldscheine, raising €400m with a multitranche deal that closed on Wednesday.

One of the most widely anticipated IPOs in the EMEA region got going on Thursday when EN+ Group, the Russian power and metals business controlled by Oleg Deripaska, said it would sell up to $1.5bn worth of global depositary receipts in London and Moscow in November.

On Thursday the European corporate bond markets had two new telecoms deals to consider. In the investment grade sector, unrated French issuer, Iliad, equalled its largest and longest transaction to date. The seven year trade was the shorter deal on offer, with sub-investment grade Telecom Italia opting for a 10 year tenor.

Investors piled into a 10 year covered bond from Société Générale this week, even though it was the fifth from a French issuer in the same tenor in the last month. But with issuers incentivised to pre-fund ahead of 2018, some market participants say that investor resistance will be seen before year-end.

Standard Life Aberdeen's 30.5 year non-call 10.5 deal will be the first from the firm since it was formed from a merger between Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life.

ASR Nederland picked banks to arrange the sale of a restricted tier one (RT1) note in euros on Thursday, becoming the first insurance firm to look at issuing the rare debt format in a core currency.

After several years financing in the domestic and Asian markets, Hungary turned its attention to the next stage of reducing its external liabilities this week, and was overwhelmed by the positive response to its dollar euro switch, György Barcza, chief executive of Hungary’s debt management agency (AKK), told GlobalCapital.

After three days without a deal, the euro corporate bond market reopened with nearly €2bn of new issuance from three different issuers. The auto finance lender, FCA Bank, issued a three year deal, French electrical equipment manufacturer, Legrand, sold six year bonds, while French toll road operator, Cofiroute offered a 10 year transaction.