Germany

The State of North Rhine Westphalia (Land NRW) had to pay a large new issue premium on Thursday as it brought the first SSA deal of a volatile week.

Martin Roland has moved from FIG syndication at LBBW to funding and debt investor relations.

KfW is exploring whether it needs to increase the size of its annual capital markets funding programme after outlining plans to expand its lending to help companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Union is set to make at least €25bn of budget funding available for sectors affected by the Covid-19 coronavirus, as its institutions join forces to tackle the economic impact of the outbreak. Rules on state aid and public finance will also be loosened, giving member states more room to launch fiscal stimulus measures.

Deutsche Bank said this week that it will keep its $1.25bn 6.25% additional tier one outstanding beyond its first call date, having become the second European bank to extend the life of an AT1 for economic reasons.

Market participants are calling on European financial authorities to help banks deal with the impact of Covid-19. Forbearance could come in the shape of state guarantees or in the form of the relaxation of certain elements of bank capital requirements.

A window for Kangaroo issuance opened this week, as a positive move in the Australian dollar/euro basis swap helped rouse a slumbering market that had not seen a deal for a fortnight. In spite of unstable conditions, SSAs entered the market on Monday and Tuesday, with a trio of regular borrowers tapping six lines for a combined A$575m ($364m).

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies at the start of March.

A €704m share block in German remote software company TeamViewer showed that the equity capital markets are still open for large opportunistic block trades, despite equity market fears over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Two German states rebooted the primary SSA market on Tuesday with intraday deals at the opposite ends of the euro curve. The five year deal was almost two times covered but there were no book updates for the 15 year.

German auto and industrial supplier Schaeffler has launched an inaugural Schuldschein. The funds will be used in accordance with its green finance framework.

Dürr is looking for its second sustainability-linked Schuldschein, after the listed mechanical and plant engineering firm launched its first issue in the format last May.