Europe

Lenders have allowed a cut to Turkish bank margins in their latest refinancing round, according to people familiar with the matter, as the lira recovers from its 2018 crash and the local regulator becomes tougher on bad loans.

Germany is considering four options for its first green or sustainable bond issue, which is likely to come next year. But this will not mean an increase in borrowing — Germany will finance its climate change investments with taxes.

Covered bond market conditions are now improving as the new quarter ushers in a fresh wave of investor cash. With supply expected to fall and the European Central Bank (ECB) likely to step up purchases, spreads should tighten. But investors believe that as real money buyers are inclined to protect their profits, they will gradually retreat from this market.

Italy’s first inflation-linked syndication in more than two years hit the market on Wednesday and raised €4bn from a book of €22bn, far outstripping the €6.4bn book for its previous linker sale.

Credit Suisse has found one way to deal with low interest rates in Europe: switch into another currency. The Swiss bank has conjured up an extra Sfr250m ($250m) of net interest income (NII) per year from changing how it hedges the capital to meet its operational risk.

Swiss investors’ thirst for yield was quenched in some style at the end of last week, when Russian Railways printed the largest Swiss franc transaction of the year from an emerging market borrower.

Italian information technology company Almaviva took a plunge far below par in the bond markets this week as investors mulled S&P’s rating cut from B+ to B. The rating agency fears that Almaviva will struggle to keep its leverage ratio in check because local telecommunications companies are abandoning it for cheaper alternatives in eastern Europe.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg has long held the crown as the top Schuldschein arranger, but even as the market internationalises the Stuttgart-based bank has retained its ability to cope with deal flow, as well as push the market beyond its usual borders.

Ukrainian steel and mining company Metinvest sold a dual tranche dollar and euro bond on Tuesday, but an inability to tighten from initial price guidance and poor trading in the secondary market on Wednesday had some investors worried that the perfect window for EM issuance is closing.

Allied Irish Banks was met with a strong response for an additional tier one (AT1) in the euro market on Wednesday, just a month after its national peer Bank of Ireland had to pull a subordinated bond amid fears about the impact of the UK’s departure from the EU.

Swedbank and UniCredit got away with paying small new issue premiums for senior bonds this week, after utilising an extremely favourable backdrop for issuers in the euro market.

Investor demand for Møre Boligkreditt’s five year covered bond issued on Wednesday was well in excess of the deal size — even though the negative yield of minus 0.269% means they are bound to lose money if they hold it to maturity.