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Commodities company Mercuria has returned for its annual borrowing of $980m. This time, it is enticing banks with a 10bp Covid-19 premium on the loan margin and fees.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

Rating: Aa3/A/A+

Banks and insurance companies were falling over one another to issue green bonds this week, with deal arrangers seeing ESG labels as near infallible ways of bringing pricing through fair value, write Tyler Davies and David Freitas.

Rentenbank made an impressive entry to the green benchmark bond market this week with its biggest ever order book in euros by overall size and number of accounts. Head of funding Leopold Olma, who has spent 20 years with the German development agency’s funding team, called it the “ultimate transaction”.

Dutch DIY group Maxeda launched a refinancing this week which pushed up its rating, after it took out its 2022s with new 2026 bonds, taking any liquidity constraints for the triple-C rated chain firmly off the table. Despite the pandemic, the retailer has been successfully deleveraging, helped by a boom in home improvements during lockdown.

Commerzbank and Unipol Group ‘ticked all the boxes’ with their new green senior transactions on Wednesday, amassing large orders from investors.

Qatar’s largest bank, Qatar National Bank (QNB), has raised the country’s first green bond, in a deal that achieved a new issue discount while diversifying and expanding the issuer’s investor base.

Rentenbank impressed SSA bankers on Tuesday as rolled out its debut benchmark green bond. The deal is expected to pay no new issue premium at the final spread.

Two Gulf bank issuers — Qatar National Bank and Gulf International Bank — hit bond markets on Tuesday to raise dollar funds, following what has been a busy period for Middle Eastern issuers. With investor appetite remains ravenous and market conditions healthy, there is scope for further issuance.

Rentenbank is moving forward with its plans to issue a debut euro green benchmark bond following a series of investor meetings over the past few weeks.

Issuance in Europe’s high grade corporate market trended towards high beta names this week, with a spate of deals from riskier names, including the first outing for German fallen angel ZF Freidrichshafen since its downgrade.