Europe

Two public sector borrowers will follow the EU’s record breaking success in the euro market on Wednesday, with Agence Française de Développement looking to sell its debut bond under its new framework tied to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Greece tapping its 2035s.

German e-commerce company Fashionette, which sells designer handbags and accessories online, has set a price range for its IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

UBS's investment bank beat analyst consensus as capital markets revenue was up sharply year-on-year, while a sale of intellectual property rights resulted in a one-off gain, the bank showed in third quarter results on Tuesday.

The impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the hotel and retail loans securing German Pfandbriefe is likely to present serious challenges. But conservative lending and high interest rate coverage ratios provide solid protection, so managing a prospective rise in risk-weighted assets will likely be the bigger challenge for certain issuers, said bankers on Tuesday.

Naftogaz of Ukraine elected to pull its long six year benchmark bond from the market on Monday, postponing it indefinitely.

Investors crowded into a €929.3m trade in German remote access software company TeamViewer, as Permira returned to the market to sell down more shares in the company.

UnipolSai Assicurazioni was nearly three times subscribed for a restricted tier one (RT1) this week — the first of its kind in Italy. An attractive coupon helped to offset any concerns about Italian sovereign risk or a lack of liquidity in the RT1 market.

Getlink, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, is preparing a €700m high yield green bond to refinance its 2023 bonds and raise cash for capex, including finishing off a landmark electricity connection between the UK and France. The refi comes after it negotiated waivers on the covenants in its term loan to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

The European Union impressed as it sold its highly anticipated debut syndicated bond under its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) funding programme on Tuesday, with the deal receiving record breaking demand at minimal new issue premiums.

Deal arrangers say the euro market is wide open for the return US bank issuance, following a very successful trade from Bank of America this week.

Swiss duty free operator Dufry has finished its Sfr820m at-market rights issue, which has enabled Advent International and Chinese e-commerce firm to take large strategic stakes in the company.

The technical outlook for covered bonds had always been supportive, but after it emerged that newly mandated EU bonds were trading sharply higher in the grey market on Monday, traders were even more confident, especially for deals in the ultra-long end of the curve, such as CFF’s transaction issued on Monday.