Europe

The French owned Belgian bank has appointed leads to market its first legally compliant covered bond that is backed by Belgian mortgages.

The covered bond pipeline grew this week as Ibercaja and BNP Paribas Fortis mandated leads for roadshows and Nordea signalled it could be ready to return soon.

Hannele Pokka, the Finnish minister for the environment said, in an exclusive interview with GlobalCapital, that she believes the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the first ever universal, legally binding climate accord struck in 2015, will spur on the green bond market’s development.

The euro high yield market in September reached the highest volume of bond sales on record for the past 18 months, according to research house CreditSights, but not all data was so encouraging.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s decision to offset its €5bn capital raise with a debt for equity swap will likely affect retail bondholders, once again raising questions about the investor base’s role in the capital markets.

ASB Bank extended its euro curve with a tightly priced seven year. But with half the demand that was seen in the previous seven year from a New Zealand bank, its size ambition was thwarted.

EuroChem tightened pricing for its $500m bond by 45bp in what the issuer described as the lowest ever dollar coupon for a non-investment grade Russian borrower.

The Italian subsidiary of Crédit Agricole has issued the longest Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite ever seen with a dual tranche offering that boasted one of the most granular distributions.

Russia’s Promsvyazbank is preparing a roadshow for a dollar bond of three or 3.5 years, following Otkritie Bank’s trade earlier this week.

German film packaging manufacturer Klockner Pentaplast launched a $1.05bn-equivalent loan refinancing with a lender call on Wednesday afternoon as it looks to tap into the trend of tightening prices.

French glass packaging maker Verallia on Wednesday began testing investors’ thirst for risk with a €500m pay-if-you-can (PIYC) bond, the first of its kind issued since October 2015.

Geneva-headquartered oil and commodity trader Vitol has signed $8bn of syndicated revolving credit facilities, gaining the support of 55 banks.