Germany

A block in HelloFresh, the German meal kit delivery company, sold quickly after market close on Wednesday night, with investors already enjoying a 9% rise in the stock price.

When the euro corporate market attempted to return to full speed after a pause on Wednesday, investors were given a tough choice between three triple-B rated issuers all selling seven year bonds and another selling a sub-benchmark five year tranche. The result was a bad one for issuers.

German media company Bertelsmann pulled a €500m seven year corporate bond issue on Thursday, just hours after launching the deal alongside two other seven year deals.

The chairman of Deutsche Börse, Joachim Faber, on Wednesday said he would leave his post after a transition period before serving his full three-year term.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB), which completed its second euro benchmark Pfandbrief of the year this week, is expected to consider issuance in dollars or sterling, as are other German issuers that have big foreign currency assets.

The advisory arm of Hermes Investment Management fired both barrels at Deutsche Börse chairman Joachim Faber on Tuesday, partially blaming him for the implosion of the proposed merger with the London Stock Exchange Group in 2016

Schuldschein issuance this year will be much lower than in 2017, Moody’s analysts have predicted. Their view echoes those of two German Landesbanks. But although there is a creeping consensus in the market of an impending fall, participants are no closer to agreeing why.

German chemicals company BASF found substantial demand for its second visit to the corporate bond market to fund its acquisition of Bayer’s seed business.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) priced an Aa1 rated six year Pfandbrief on Tuesday at the same spread as Deutsche Bank’s Aaa rated five year issued last week, showing the market has improved. But, with tighter monetary policy recently signalled and more supply due, the advantageous funding window may prove short lived.

BMW Finance had to negotiate its way through a busy corporate bond market on Monday as it sold a €1.75bn 4.5 and eight year dual tranche offering. It had to pay new issue premiums of around 8bp-10bp but saw strong demand.

The Pfandbrief market may at last be stabilising after almost 18 years of contraction. And with the share of mortgage Pfandbriefe growing and peripheral exposure shrinking, collateral quality has improved. The market is set to evolve as new names emerge, others merge and some disappear.

Vodafone's agreed takeover of Liberty Global's Unitymedia business in Germany and assets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania for an enterprise value of €18.2bn could set off a wave of other deals in Europe's telecoms market, especially in the UK.