Germany

L-Bank will go on the road to promote the first ever Reg S dollar benchmark priced over the dollar risk free rate Sofr.

Rentenbank printed at a tight spread on Thursday with a 10 year euro benchmark, swelling the deal to €1.25bn.

Of the 13 German Pfandbriefe issued this year, a trio of deals issued by DZ Hyp, BayernLB and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank are vying for the top covered bond mark.

Rentenbank hit screens on Wednesday to announce a 10 year euro benchmark, joining a resurgence of long-dated euro supply.

UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB, attracted much more demand for a €500m tap of a 10 year benchmark on Wednesday than when the bond was originally issued in January. Not only that but it did so at a tighter spread and new issue concession. The strong execution underscores just how much market sentiment has improved.

Siemens, the German engineering group, and Fortum, the Finnish electricity company, hit the corporate bond market on Tuesday with big, multi-tranche euro deals totalling €5.5bn. Both achieved great terms at long tenors in an otherwise quiet market.

KfW returned to the euro market with a one day tap, joining France and Cyprus in the market and extending the its stellar run of new issues in euros.

Germany’s ElringKlinger has signed a €350m loan. The automotive supply company has swapped bilateral lines for syndicated lending as it looks to shore up its capital structure amid widespread upheaval in Europe’s vehicle industry.

Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman’s bid for German listings and classified ad group Scout24 is likely to disappoint the leveraged finance market in Europe, which is keen to see some jumbo event-driven supply. The firms are targeting a takeover of the group, but not as a full take-private structure — and with a large equity cheque cutting the likely debt volume on offer, as well as the leverage and price.

ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering company, has raised €1.5bn in the corporate bond market, despite downward pressure on its credit ratings as it prepares to spin off its capital goods business later this year.

Telefonica Deutschland has launched a Schuldschein with wider pricing to reflect broader investor appetite, sources claim.

The UK’s future may be impossible to fathom as the beyond-satirical story of Brexit drags on, but public sector borrowers printing in the country’s currency can be certain that this will be a year of tumbling records, with volumes soaring and average sizes rocketing. While strong technical factors are behind much of the demand, some SSA bankers say that a willingness by issuers to treat execution in the currency like that in euros and dollars has bolstered sterling’s standing.