Germany
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Steilmann, the German clothing retailer that aims “to make people feel fabulous about themselves”, announced today that it was preparing to float in Frankfurt by the end of the year. -
A violent reaction to German car company Volkswagen’s admission that it had used defeat device software in some of its diesel vehicles over a six year period tracing back to 2009 gripped capital markets this week.
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The European Union has just €1.2bn left of a €5.2bn funding plan for September and October, having raised €2bn with an eight year this week that many bankers praised as evidence of normalisation of the pricing process in euros.
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UBS pulled in $13bn of demand for a holdco senior debut in dollars this week, which for some bankers showed the gulf between attitudes towards loss-absorbing debt on either side of the Atlantic.
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ING Belgium and Bawag received good receptions for their covered bonds issued this week, in contrast to less spectacular outcomes for deals from Westpac New Zealand and UniCredit.
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Stagecoach Group, the UK bus and train operator, filled the book for a £400m bond issue more than twice over on Monday, breathing life into a previously empty sterling market.
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Standard & Poor’s has joined Fitch in putting Volkswagen on CreditWatch negative, although the company has won some respite in secondary bond markets.
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Volkswagen credit spreads more than tripled this week and other European automotive names moved sharply wider but some traders and strategists called it a knee-jerk reaction that is likely to be corrected soon.
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HVB, the German subsidiary of UniCredit, returned to the covered bond market for the third time this year to issue a €500m five year mortgage backed Pfandbrief which, despite offering a double digit new issue premium, was only slightly oversubscribed.
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Chorus Clean Energy, the German solar and wind power plant operator, on Thursday returned to market with the same IPO it had pulled in July, but with new arguments to sell it.
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German corporate credit, generally regarded as a safe bet, has had a torrid time of late. Last week we looked at how the costs of transitioning from nuclear to clean energy had inflicted damage on German utilities and sent credit spreads spiralling wider. This week it was the turn of the automotive industry, and Germany’s largest car producer: Volkswagen.
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