Europe

One of the sectors so far unscathed through the pandemic, in the eyes of institutional investors, has been UK social housing. Deals from housing associations have been priced during the crisis, as several institutions have said their resolve to invest in the sector remains undimmed.

Restructured German ship lender, Hamburg Commercial Bank, has announced a tender offer for covered bonds on Wednesday. At the same time, Berlin Hyp (BHH) announced that it had bought almost €300m Pfandbrief in a recent tender which it plans to refinance with a longer dated deal.

A Rb11bn ($157m) block trade in Detsky Mir, the Russian children’s retailer, won a big investor reception on Tuesday night. There are now hopes that there will be more Russian transactions in the weeks and months ahead.

DZ Hyp managed to raise €1bn of eight year Pfandbrief funding flat to its curve on Wednesday. The deal contrasted with one from Axa Banque SFH, which paid a much larger premium for a €500m 15 year, possibly due to far higher French supply this year and confusion with Axa Banque Europe SCF, which has already entered the market four times this year.

Legal & General’s order books peaked at over £4bn ($4.96bn) as it made its first sale of restricted tier one (RT1) capital this week, joining many of its UK peers in the asset class. The insurer used the popularity of its trade to tighten the pricing and leave no new issue premium behind.

Virgin Money secured its first foothold in the euro market on Wednesday, selling €500m of senior debt from its holding company as part of a deal that had been initially been postponed because of Covid-19 concerns.

William Hill, the UK bookmaker, has raised £224m to pursue growth opportunities ahead of the restarting of sporting events such as the Premier League.

Italy’s first IPO since the Covid-19 crisis, from medical filter and mask manufacturer GVS, has been priced in Milan. Now, there is hope of further listings on the exchange, despite jitters among domestic investors.

The Belgian debt agency has made an upward revision to its funding programme for the year after a re-examination of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But the sovereign is closely watching the progress of the European Commission’s Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) fund, which would result in lower borrowing from the market.

State-owned Hungarian Development Bank (HDB) on Wednesday launched a euro-denominated benchmark bond. The bond marks the third entry into the market by the Hungarian sovereign or one of its entities during the coronavirus pandemic.

BNP Paribas has appointed Christina Cho and Anne van Riel to lead its sustainable finance capital markets business in the Americas.

Sovereign, supranational and agency bond issuers are mobilising their resources to support the fight against Covid-19. The below table details the bonds they have issued, specifically in response to the coronavirus pandemic.