Germany

The sterling bond market is enjoying a golden age. That was in clear evidence this week when a German-focused property company with very few sterling assets to fund chose to sell its debut deal in the currency. Nigel Owen reports.

In a busy week for utility company bonds Iren, the Italian electricity and gas distributor, on Tuesday announced a new benchmark green bond alongside a tender offer for some of its outstanding bonds.

Innogy, the German utility split off from RWE in April 2016, on Wednesday announced it would be holding investor calls about a new benchmark 10 year debut green bond issue. Later in the day, Standard & Poor’s upgraded the issuer to BBB.

Germany’s general election has put the Green party in a strong position to push for bolder policies on sustainability, and possibly to gain control of the energy ministry.

The European Investment Bank shrugged off any concerns over the divisions between the governments of Spain and Catalonia and the skinny spreads on offer, printing $3bn at one of the tightest spreads of the year.

On Wednesday, Aroundtown took advantage of the current very favourable conditions in the sterling market. The Germany-focused property company’s debut issue in the currency took to four the number of different currencies the issuer has sold bonds in during 2017.

Buoyed by low volatility, record high share prices, and a risk-on attitude among investors, Europe’s booming market for IPOs gained three more deals on Tuesday when Bakkavor, HelloFresh and M7 Multi-Let Reit all announced their intentions to float.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the German State of North Rhein-Westphalia (Land NRW) have picked banks for dollar benchmarks expected to hit the market on Wednesday.

Dominik Felsmann has landed a job at ABN Amro as head of leveraged finance Germany. The bank has also named Arjan Van Rijn as global head of leveraged finance origination.

FMS Wertmanagement has announced that it will come to market for a sterling bond on Tuesday, hoping to follow Export Development Canada’s success last week.

On Monday, Statnett, the Norwegian state electricity grid company, mandated banks for its debut benchmark bond issue in euros. This followed German power utility RWE announcing the results of its recent tender offer on Friday.

Befesa, the Spanish metals recycling group, has joined the queue of companies going public in Europe this autumn, having announced its intention to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.