Germany

Aumann Group, the German maker of wire enamelling and electric motors for cars, has opened the book for its Frankfurt IPO, which could value it at up to €257m.

Volkswagen is planning a return to public bond markets for the first time since it was engulfed by its emissions test cheating scandal in September 2015, write Michael Turner, Silas Brown and Jon Hay.

RAG-Stiftung, the German state-backed foundation set up in 2007 to support the discontinuation of the country’s coal mines, tapped the equity-linked market for a third time on Thursday with a €525m note exchangeable into shares in Evonik Industries, the German speciality chemicals company.

While Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting brought little in the way of material changes, the SSA market is watching closely, expecting a tightening of eurozone monetary policy. Meanwhile, the Joint Laender launched a euro seven year benchmark.

The Schuldschein market has stumped up €900m for Volkswagen in its first syndicated, unsecured debt issue in its own name since it was engulfed by its emissions test cheating scandal in September 2015.

Volkswagen’s main borrowing entities have not issued unsecured bonds since the company became embroiled in its diesel emissions test cheating scandal in September 2015. Last week, however, the company took a first step back, with a €900m Schuldschein issue for its financial services arm.

Equity capital markets in EMEA have stepped up a gear this week, with a wave of new IPOs being announced, a handful of large block trades and the launch of a highly anticipated €8bn rights issue.

Deutsche EuroShop, the German property company, completed an 8.7% capital increase as an accelerated sale on Tuesday evening, raising €165m to finance the acquisition of the Olympia Center, one of the largest shopping malls in the Czech Republic.

If you were an enthusiastic participant in any of the last three post-crisis Deutsche Bank rights issues, you might be starting to feel a little jaded. That would be a very reasonable position.

Prices of Deutsche Bank’s euro additional tier one (AT1) bonds leapt higher on Monday, after management approved payment of its additional tier one coupons in 2017 and announced plans to raise €8bn of new capital via a rights issue.

Deutsche Bank confirmed over the weekend that it was preparing an €8bn rights issue, alongside a fresh strategic overhaul that includes a partial IPO of its asset management division and the reintegration of Postbank.

BASF launched an innovative $600m bond with warrants on Thursday that may go some way to solving some of the disadvantages of the equity-neutral structure that has become popular with investment grade CB issuers.