Germany

Covered bond issuers have provided more than €7bn of supply this week after a moribund spell, proving themselves to be more nimble and opportunistic than perhaps ever before.

Time is up for the covered bond lemmings. They’ve had it too easy for too long. Gone are the days of pricing a covered bond exactly where your neighbour wished they had printed theirs. Issuers need to be nimble and bankers insightful.

UniCredit Bank AG (HVB) proved that investor appetite for duration is returning on Friday when it took a €2.2bn book for its eight year €500m Pfandbrief. Only two other issuers have printed this rare tenor in 2015.

German Startups Group, the Berlin-based venture capital firm, had been due to finish bookbuilding its IPO on Thursday, but instead extended the sale until Tuesday 21 July.

German Startups Group had been due to finish bookbuilding its IPO on Thursday, but instead extended the sale until Tuesday 21 July.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, nationalised during the financial crisis, made its stockmarket debut on Thursday and traded up 6.5%, after pricing its IPO on Wednesday evening at the bottom of the range.

Rocket Internet, the German internet business group, raised €550m this week with a convertible bond that was criticised by rival bankers, but according to bookrunner JP Morgan was “a super-successful transaction”.

Greek parliament gave bankers the result they were hoping for on Wednesday night, providing strong market conditions for two well established eurozone issuers — Commerzbank and BPCE — to issue five year bonds, taking a combined €1bn in the covered bond market. Sizable orderbooks and minimal new issue premiums proved that the market is very much in full operating mode.

Three block trades took place on Tuesday night, as Europe’s equity capital markets appear to be returning to normality after the stress of the Greek debt negotiations of the past few weeks.

An unwelcome slump in deal activity comes just as banks are getting back on the front foot, writes David Rothnie.

Garfunkelux Financial Services, a German debt collection company, on Wednesday became the first European company to break the ice in the mainstream euro high yield market by starting a roadshow for a €365m deal.

CVC Capital Partners took another swift step towards its exit of Evonik Industries on Monday night, pouncing after the German chemical company’s shares had hit an all time high to sell a block of shares for €519m, in a deal that was increased.