Europe

After a near two year absence, Deutsche Bahn pulled into the Swiss franc market to issue 15 year debt with no new issue premium this week, landing inside its own euro curve.

Bankers are betting on a strong year for the UK — Europe’s biggest fee pool — but the overlapping concerns of Brexit, Covid-19 and regulation make for an uncertain outlook, writes David Rothnie.

In a dramatic and unprecedented turn of events on Wednesday, Spain went from being on track to attract the biggest ever order book for a bond issue to losing more than half of its orders, as it slashed the spread of its new 10 year syndicated bond, leaving either a negative or very skinny new issue premium.

European investors have become a rich source of equity capital for the continent’s consumer facing, fast growing tech firms over the last few years, providing them with an alternative to listing in the US. Now, these fruits are ripening and Europe’s 2021 IPO calendar is set to provide a bumper harvest, writes Sam Kerr.

KfW printed its first green bond in South African rand this week, reflecting the growth in demand for sustainable products outside of core currencies, according to a funding official at the agency.

Austrian paper and packaging firm Mayr-Melnhof Karton, called MM Karton for short, has launched a Schuldscheine, with an initial target of €300m.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) has mandated joint leads for a 20 year Pfandbrief, the longest covered bond so far this year.

Turkish bank Yapi Kredi launched a tier two dollar bond on Thursday, with demand strong enough for bookrunners to attempt to squeeze pricing. But this is an unorthodox start to the year for Turkish bonds with the traditional curtain raiser from the sovereign nowhere to be seen.

DNB Boligkreditt issued a covered bond on Thursday that became its most oversubscribed covered bond ever, equalling the bank’s biggest ever order book. The deal, secured on green mortgages, was priced through its vanilla curve, clearly demonstrating the demand for covered bonds.

Shop Apotheke, the European online pharmacy, is seeking to tap the convertible bond market for financing once again following a large surge in revenues during the pandemic.

Investors flocked to the first block trade in The Hut Group (THG), the UK e-commerce company that was listed on the London Stock Exchange in September, in an overnight trade on Wednesday evening.

Natixis has promoted four DCM co-heads in its financial institutions and corporate origination business lines.