Germany

German chemicals and consumer goods firm Henkel cleaned up in Swissies after a 24 year absence this week, while local company SGS ventured out further along the maturity curve.

DCM officials have expressed surprise at the speed with which the market has adapted to working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, with issuers able to complete deals quickly and with little extra fuss.

Greece is looking to become the latest eurozone sovereign to sell a seven year syndicated bond, after mandating banks on Tuesday for the transaction.

Schuldschein arrangers are waiting for large German blue chips to launch transactions, to help ease the market’s reopening after the coronavirus. According to market sources, deals are being prepared and are expected to launch in the next one or two weeks.

GlobalCapital has launched a deal tracker for the Schuldschein market during the pandemic, for readers to follow primary issuance in the private debt market.

The private placement market has provided a valuable source of funding in both covered bond and senior unsecured format, German issuers told GlobalCapital on Monday in the wake of a Moody’s report that highlighted the limited use of Pfandbrief for funding commercial lending.

BMO Capital Markets lead managed its first ever sterling public sector bond issue this week, with an under the radar tap for Rentenbank.

German agency L-Bank steamed into the dim sum bond market on Tuesday to print what could be the start of a new flurry of offshore renminbi issuance.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies in early April.

Rating agency Fitch says that the bleak economic outlook has exposed many of Germany’s banks’ weaknesses, prompting it to take action on the ratings of many of them. Deutsche Bank could become one of Europe’s banks most affected by the recession.

Some fear a sorry fate for European private debt funds, as small and medium-sized businesses across the continent struggle to stay afloat amid the devastation caused by Covid-19. Symon Drake-Brockman, founder and managing partner of Pemberton Capital Advisers, one such private debt fund, spoke to GlobalCapital’s Silas Brown about the pandemic and the prospects for private credit in its wake.

Germany’s Finanzagentur has outlined plans to sell its first syndicated bonds since 2015, with a new 15 year in May and a reopening of an existing 30 year bond in June. It said further syndications could follow in the second half of the year as it comes to terms with a much bigger funding programme in response to the Covid-19 crisis.