Europe

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes in early December.

Barclays plc priced a short-dated senior deal about five basis points through fair value in the dollar market this week, as Brexit negotiations come down to the eleventh hour.

Alstom, the French manufacturer of trains, trams and buses, has completed its €2bn rights issue to fund the acquisition of Bombardier's train division.

Banks bombarded the dollar market this week with a rich variety of trades in what promises to be a busy run-in to the end of the year with investors still in the hunt for primary deals.

The House of Commons' Treasury Select Committee has asked the UK Debt Management Office to answer a series of questions on its bond syndication programme, specifically on the pricing of its bonds and the fees it pays to bookrunners.

Emerging market borrowers seem to be enjoying unfettered access to the capital markets, but many are now questioning whether this Covid-induced debt spree can be sustained in the long run. With fiscal support packages likely to be needed in 2021, investors will be sifting through EM governments to see which will be able to borrow and which will be left behind, writes Mariam Meskin.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena led a trio of speculative grade Italian banks into the euro bond market this week, as credit investors showed that no issuers were off limit in their increasingly desperate search for yield. Tyler Davies reports.

Jean Pierre Mustier's departure from UniCredit may help Italy in an attempt — shared by governments and supervisors around Europe — to push the banking sector to help solve economic policy problems during the pandemic.

Green bond specialists have criticised the buildings section of the European Union’s proposed sustainable finance taxonomy as impractical as it creates unhelpful incentives that exclude most bank financing, including green senior unsecured, RMBS and covered bonds.

Competition among public sector borrowers will be more ferocious than ever when 2021 begins, due to supersized borrowing programmes created to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union’s arrival as a big issuer and a lack of decent funding windows in January, writes Burhan Khadbai.

Guarantor: Federal State of Baden‑Württemberg

Münchener Hypothekenbank (MunHyp) made use of an impressive spread tightening in the Swiss franc market to follow up Pfandbriefbank’s monthly issue with an even tighter covered deal of its own.