Europe

Odeabank took advantage of limited supply in the emerging market space to price a well-received Eurobond debut on Monday.

Markets reacted with apathy to the news that the US House of Representatives had voted on Tuesday to expand sanctions against Russia.

The ECB stimulus has likely contributed to a flow of borrowers and buyers entering the Schuldschein market, as downward pressure on spreads has forced lenders to look further for yield. But with talk of ECB tapering, some fear that the international investors who drove up volumes will return to more traditional stomping grounds. Others , however, think these investors will be more faithful.

Equity investors' keen appetite for UK challenger bank stocks was evident this week when Metro Bank was able to raise £278m of fresh capital at no discount to its share price. But investors hoping for more liquidity events are likely to have to wait for secondary sales, writes Aidan Gregory.

Municipality Finance on Thursday became the second European SSA to enter the Swiss franc market this week, after Nederlandse Waterschapsbank became the first European SSA to place Swiss bonds since 2015.

Forecasts that Europe’s corporate bond market would be all but closed for the summer this week were belied by Unilever on Monday when it launched its biggest-ever euro bond and took some of the tightest corporate pricing ever.

The covered bonds issued by European banks that are being wound down are no longer eligible for the covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3) and wind down entities will not be eligible for repo funding from 2022. The measures dovetail with others that will hit covered bonds with extendable maturities, in addition to those retained for repo purposes.

Kraton Polymers, the US chemicals, has scheduled a bank meeting for Monday in London for a debut €220m term loan, with proceeds repaying some of its existing dollar facilities.

With no new issues pricing on Thursday, and no sign of Superstrada Pedemontana Veneta’s €1.55bn dual tranche deal, it could be left to The Housing Finance Corp (THFC) to save the investment grade corporate bond market from a three day run without any issuance.

The three new issues and one tap that priced in the investment grade corporate bond market this week were all two to three times oversubscribed, but a thinning supply pipeline and the excuse of a Fed meeting meant no deals were launched on Wednesday or Thursday. However, three issuers are looking to issue before the summer break, following meetings with investors.

Deutsche Bank’s €1.75bn 6% additional tier one (AT1) bond hit a six month high on Thursday after the firm announced its quarterly results.

After Monday’s British flavour to corporate bond issuance, German real estate company, Grand City Properties brought the only new issue in the market on Tuesday, as part of an exercise to extend the average maturity of its debt.