Germany

Marcel Göldner has been picked as the successor to Andreas Petrie, the retiring head of primary markets at Helaba.

Germany’s Volkswagen ended an absence of almost seven years from the offshore renminbi bond market this week, braving a year-end dip in liquidity to seal a Rmb1bn ($153m) deal. It offered yet another diversification opportunity for the carmaker, which is already a well-established name in China’s onshore securitization market. Addison Gong reports.

Nordex, the German wind-turbine developer, has raised €200m from the sale of 10.7m new shares to fund growth.

Kommunalbanken, the financing agency for Norwegian municipalities, and L–Bank, the development bank for the State of Baden–Württemberg, built well covered order books as they brought what will likely be the SSA market’s final dollar benchmark deals of 2020.

Schuldschein investors have soured on auto, travel and retail sector borrowers through the coronavirus pandemic, which had historically brought significant deal flow to the market. Now bookrunners are scrabbling to find new sectors for investors to lend to.

Kommunalbanken and L-Bank will each bring a dollar benchmark to the market on Tuesday, in what could be the final public SSA deals in the currency this year.

Equity bankers have predicted a strong end to 2020 for primary issuance as more companies seek to raise capital to take advantage of bullish market conditions in preparation for 2021.

Luminor Bank was more than 3-1/2 times subscribed on its return to the euro market on Wednesday, allowing it to demonstrate a year-on-year improvement in its senior funding costs.

Clearstream Banking was nearly 12 times subscribed for its debut senior transaction on Tuesday, allowing it to tighten its pricing by 39bp and issue at a negative yield.

Frankfurt-listed online fashion retailer Global Fashion Group has placed €120m of stock to fund future growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the trend of more consumers shopping online.

Hamburg Airport has launched a Schuldschein deal, following Munich Airport’s entry into the market in early October.

Hedge funds have started to take a keen interest in the Schuldschein market, but restructuring laws in Germany set to come into effect in January will stop them before they truly get started.