Europe

National Bank of Greece (NBG) is poised to issue the first post-crisis Greek covered bond, having drawn confidence from the blowout reception Santander Totta won for its €1bn 10 year this week — the longest Portuguese deal since 2010. Bill Thornhill reports.

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting last week created a midweek pause in sterling issuance. However, once the meeting passed, Land Securities reopened the market with a £1bn pair of long dated tranches last Friday.

Stada Arzneimittel, the German pharmaceuticals firm being bought in a €5.3bn deal by Bain Capital and Cinven, opened a bond roadshow on Monday after marketing €2bn of leveraged loans last week .

Asklepios Kliniken, a German chain of hospitals, launched a €300m triple tranche Schuldschein on Wednesday with pricing that could tempt a wide variety of lenders.

Russia tapped its dollar denominated June 2027 and 2047 bonds on Wednesday, with a lead saying that many names new to the sovereign had bought into the debt reopening.

The UK water and waste company Pennon, which owns South West Water and Viridor, got an overwhelming response to its £300m hybrid offering on Monday. Investors clearly signalled their approval of the unrated company’s growth strategy.

European authorities have announced the start of work to identify a risk-free overnight rate, to be provided by the European Central Bank by 2020.

The Spanish central government’s stand-off with the executive in Catalonia over an upcoming independence referendum is failing to worry Bono investors — but some bankers believe the market could soon be hit by a bout of volatility unless an agreement is reached. The Spanish situation was in marked contrast to the country’s western neighbour, as Portugal enjoyed a strong week after regaining investment grade status from S&P.

Guarantor: Republic of Austria

Activity in the FIG green bond market is picking up in September with close to 100 accounts putting in orders for Deutsche Kreditbank’s second euro offering on Tuesday and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) preparing to hit the road for a holding company level green transaction.

Engie, the French energy group, priced its second green bond transaction of 2017 on Tuesday. The triple trancher contained two green clips and took the issuer’s tally to six different green bonds. As issuers start to establish genuine green curves, they are starting to create their own sector, writes Nigel Owen.

A prominent UK lawyer clashed with a senior European commissioner at a conference this week after saying there was a ‘work-around’ for Brexit.