Germany

Germany’s Schuldschein market entered the second half of the year on strong form, after near-record issuance in the second quarter. But sharply tightening pricing in the bond market, which competes with it for deals, could yet scupper hopes for a record year.

BMW returned to the Panda bond market on Wednesday, raising Rmb3.5bn ($509m) from a privately-placed deal. The shortest tranche got plenty of demand from local investors, helped by flush short-term liquidity.

Intermediate Capital Group has hired a managing director of subordinated debt and equity in Germany, a new position.

Berlin Hyp this week attracted strong and broad interest for a green mortgage Pfandbrief that, thanks to a small rise in yields since the deal was mandated, narrowly avoiding being priced with a negative return.

Activity in the green covered bond market is improving with Berlin Hyp (BHH) mandating leads for a green mortgage covered bond this week, just a few days after Société Générale issued its first green covered bond.

DZ Hyp managed to build a substantial book in little time on Tuesday for its second 10 year Pfandbrief of the year, with demand fortunately swelled by an overnight rise in yields.

Deutsche Bank has made deep cuts to its equity sales and trading business, as part of an aggressive restructuring plan. The bank has said it intends to retain a “focused equity capital markets business”, but in practice this means a significant retrenchment, with a strict focus on supporting Deutsche’s core clients in Europe and the US.

Yields across asset classes plumbed ever lower depths this week but investors were still forced to participate in deals as cash floods into fixed income funds. Now market participants have questioned whether the coming round of likely rate cuts will reveal the limits of investor tolerance. Lewis McLellan, Burhan Khadbai and Bill Thornhill report.

The Schuldschein market’s first half of 2019 was better than expected, prompting arrangers to believe that this year could break the records set in 2017 for deal numbers and overall volume.

Austrian agency Asfinag won a big order book on Tuesday, allowing it to price 3bp tighter than guidance, in a 10 year tenor the issuer hasn't accessed since 2009. Municipality Finance and the German federal state of Lower Saxony will add to the euro SSA supply on Wednesday with a 10 year green bond and a seven year benchmark, respectively.

Global Fashion Group, the emerging markets-focused online fashion retailer, has begun trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange, but below its IPO price

KfW restarted the sterling SSA bond market on Monday, with the first public deal since early June. The German agency found good demand, allowing it to print a size above its minimum target.