Europe

Banco BPM did not need to pay a new issue premium to follow UBI Banca with the sale of an additional tier one (AT1) on Tuesday, as Italian banks make the most of an 'issuer's market' at the beginning of 2020.

RAG-Stiftung, the foundation charged with financing cleaning up the legacy of coal mining, has placed a block of shares in Evonik, the German speciality chemical manufacturer, at a tight concession after increasing the deal to €632.5m. The trade is another example of growing levels of demand for EMEA block trades.

European banks don’t believe they have a free option to extend the lives of their additional tier one (AT1) securities, despite the apparent success of Banco Santander’s call policy.

Navigating the covered bond market will not be without its challenges in 2020. The Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation (TLTRO), European Central Bank deposit tiering and the Covered Bond Purchase Programme have collectively distorted the market, but added to this concoction is the impact of negative interest rates. Against this backdrop issuers, investors and investment bankers gathered in Munich in November to discuss the outlook for covered bonds. It is likely that new issue premiums will gradually tighten, but the path is unlikely to be smooth. January is typically the busiest month, but in 2019, issuers that funded this early paid the highest spreads. And, with the ECB expected to buy in the region of €4.5bn covered bonds a month, issuers will not feel compelled to move early. But the ECB monetary policy has unwelcome implications. Covered bonds have begun to lose value against government bonds, and this will extend if the ECB is unable to loosen restrictions on government bond purchases.

Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB) is planning to print a five year senior unsecured dollar bond on Wednesday. A lead manager on the deal said that the size of the note is likely to be below benchmark because the bank has limited liquidity needs.

Attendees at the Euromoney Central and Eastern European Forum in Vienna on Tuesday overwhelmingly pointed to low growth as the main risk to the CEE region in 2020, bypassing volatile geopolitical and commodity risk.

Turkish lender Yapi Kredi ventured into the green bond market for the first time on Friday with a rare dollar private placement, its first since January 2016, according to Dealogic data.

Anta Sports Products, a Chinese sportswear manufacturer and retailer, had to navigate a number of roadblocks to print a €1bn zero coupon convertible bond to refinance loans in the currency.

CVC Credit Partners has provided an acquisition facility and a unitranche loan to Sabio, a UK firm providing customer engagement tools to bluechip companies.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers has appointed Alex Maubourguet to take charge of its new absolute return strategy.

Italian construction giant Salini Impregilo offered to exchange its 3.75% notes, due in 2021, to new non-call life senior notes, maturing in seven years. The €250m deal is set to be completed by Friday this week with initial price thoughts of 3.875% — indicating that Salini may have lost favour among investors and will have to pay extra to extend maturities.

The European Financial Stability Facility took the spotlight in the euro public sector bond market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of a busy week. The European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Spain and Cyprus have all announced new deals.