Europe

UniCredit has dominated the headlines again this week, but this time for a better reason. Italy’s largest bank has also been its biggest loser of shareholder value, its shares falling 75% since last summer, as investors have lost trust in the sector.

New deals from Turkey’s Yapi Kredi, Majid Al Futtaim, and Russia’s State Transport Leasing Company this week prove that CEEMEA has finally shaken off any Brexit-related concerns and is now revelling in its apparent ‘safe haven’ status.

A day after selling 10% of its Italian online retail investment service Fineco Bank for €328m, UniCredit has this evening launched an accelerated bookbuild of 10% of Bank Pekao, the Polish bank of which it owns 50.3%.

The latest $1.25bn underwritten loan for the UK’s Melrose may look like a Brexit-defying success. But in reality, the firm is a lender’s darling and this doesn’t necessarily mean the gates are open wide for all UK loans.

Adler Real Estate completed the accelerated bookbuild of its highly unusual convertible bond-cum-rights issue on Monday, raising €131m after a tough sale that it had hoped would fetch €150m.

Agence Française de Développement looked set to become only the second borrower to emerge with a euro benchmark since the UK’s Brexit vote after announcing plans for a new 10 year on Tuesday.

SSM Holding, a leading Swedish builder of flats, is preparing to list on the Stockholm exchange, the company said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

After tightening twice from initial price thoughts, Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned German railway company, sold €350m of five year notes to yield minus 0.006% on Tuesday, the first negative yielding primary deal from a corporate issuer.

Foncia, the French residential real estate company, on Tuesday began marketing its €1bn LBO loan into an "issuer friendly" market, according to one investor.

Spanish infrastructure and renewable energy company Acciona has amended a loan signed in March 2015, increasing the deal size and reducing the margin.

The covered bond primary market was kept busy on Tuesday with two Pfandbriefe issued in euros and dollars at the opposite ends of the curve. Though market conditions are constructive, bankers are concerned that the outlook will not look as pretty after the summer break.

Data firms IHS and Markit completed their merger on Tuesday, after shareholders agreed terms for a deal worth $13bn in which bond, loan and derivative services are key areas of focus.