Germany

Shares in two companies, listed on Wednesday, are trading below their IPO price, with bankers blaming more volatile market conditions for the disappointing moves.

The German Ministry of Finance has requested feedback on a draft amendment to the Pfandbrief Act that seeks to bring the country’s laws into line with the EU covered bond directive. The most contentious aspect is the inclusion of a soft bullet maturity.

Kering, the French luxury goods giant, has offloaded a €687m chunk of its stake in German sportswear company Puma, via an accelerated bookbuild.

The German State of North Rhine-Westphalia came to market on Monday for its final benchmark bond issue of 2020 — a €2.4bn sustainability bond. Although NRW is winding up this year's funding, there are still plenty of deals in the pipeline from its fellow Laender.

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. That trend looks set to continue with three SRI deals already on screens.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies at the start of the fourth quarter.

The sustainability-linked debt structure, which has already spread from the loan market to corporate bonds, has made its first appearance in a convertible bond, with a deal by Dürr. CB specialists expect it will take root in that asset class too. Jon Hay and Aidan Gregory report.

Bank Nederlandse Gementeen kicked off a busy week for socially responsible bond issuance by public sector borrowers with a well-received 12 year sustainable bond, its longest ever deal in that format.

The City of Bremen was heavily undersubscribed as it came to the market with an eight year bond on Thursday, in what is the region’s second consecutive public deal that has failed to reach full subscription.

Schuldschein lenders are gearing up for a wave of borrowers to tap the market this month, looking to capitalise on mounting piles of investor cash.

Aareal Bank sold the first bank bond in euros for a week on Wednesday, offering encouragement to other issuers who have remained stuck in the pipeline.

Moody’s has changed its outlook for Commerzbank’s issuer rating to ‘negative’ over concerns about a reduction in the bank’s senior debt levels.