Europe

Athene Global Funding encountered slim demand on its return to the sterling market this week, but UBS had better luck at the short end of the maturity curve.

Belfius cancelled a consent solicitation for one of its tier two bonds this week after the Single Resolution Board took the market by surprise and broadened the scope of its grandfathering period for ‘Brexit bonds’.

The head of the Portuguese treasury and debt management agency (IGCP) said she supports France’s novel approach of engaging with investors to tackle the problem of inflated orders.

The European Union’s final draft Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities came in for heavy criticism from a European bank's head of funding on Thursday, who said that the compromise wording would torpedo the market for green covered bonds.

Société Générale benefitted from calmer issuance conditions on Thursday as it sold €1bn of new tier two debt. The deal takes another chunk out of the issuer’s capital plans, which totalled a sizeable €4.5bn at the beginning of the year.

The Covid pandemic has delayed a lot of progress in the capital markets, but bankers say the industry is still on track to meet Libor transition deadlines. Investors have consented to the Bank of Nova Scotia transitioning the basis of its sterling covered bond from Libor to Sonia, while Westpac is seeking consent.

Lufthansa is in talks with a number of banks to raise three year money in a Schuldschein deal, according to several sources familiar with the situation.

Unédic, the French unemployment agency, had the euro SSA primary market to itself on Wednesday, allowing it to comfortably print €3bn with its second social bond benchmark of the year.

Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) debuted its sustainability framework in Norwegian kroner this week. With dollar swap spreads compressed, opportunities are opening for competitive funding in other, more niche markets.

Out of the ashes of Norwegian Air Shuttle has risen a new low-cost Norwegian transatlantic carrier, Norse Atlantic. The airline is seeking to raise Nkr1.27bn ($149m) to pick up the transatlantic routes that its beleaguered predecessor has abandoned.

German optics maker Jenoptik has sold €400m-equivalent worth of sustainability-linked Schuldscheine, with around 250 investors participating in the euro and dollar deal.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Tuesday, March 23. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.