Intesa Sanpaolo

Snam, the Italian gas pipeline company, and SKF, the Swedish ball bearing maker, kicked the week’s corporate bond new issuance off in Europe on Monday with deals that offered razor-thin spreads from the start.

Market participants expect banks will return with a flurry of senior transactions after results this week, as rising yields help to lift primary demand.

The Italian fashion house Tod’s has signed a €500m sustainability-linked loan, as environmentally conscious financing continues to infiltrate the infamously wasteful fashion industry.

FIG rainmaker Andrea Orcel is stepping back into the limelight as UniCredit chief executive, just as momentum is building for large-scale banking consolidation. He has an array of M&A options, but will he be shy in pulling the trigger? David Rothnie reports.

Svenska Handelsbanken has become the latest European bank to put out a call notice for one of its additional tier ones. Market participants are expecting a clean sweep of redemptions for the asset class this year.

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has decided to cancel general syndication for its $700m loan after the bookrunners found enough liquidity during a senior stage.

Nobody will forget 2020 in a hurry. It was the year in which a coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, created economic chaos and forced central banks into swift action. The resulting measures helped to underpin financial markets, bringing yields from record highs in March to record lows in December. But the outlook has always remained uncertain for banks and insurance companies, whose balance sheets are yet to feel the full impact of the crisis. In such a testing year, GlobalCapital wanted to reward the bond deals that achieved stand-out results for issuers — in terms of pricing, execution and timing. The winners are presented here.

Ascopiave, the Italian natural gas distribution company, has signed a sustainability-linked loan, weeks after the issuer announced its debt pile had increased by a third in a year.

Webuild, the Italian construction company formerly known as Salini Impregilo, has launched a refinancing of its €600m 2021 bond, after finally completing the takeover of stricken competitor Astaldi at the beginning of last month. The new tender offer is intended to finish a refi attempt started in January, which received lacklustre take-up.

Sub-investment grade Italian lenders Banco BPM and Illimity Bank were well-supported in the euro bond market on Thursday, as investors showed they were more than happy to look at riskier names in their search for yield.

Intesa Sanpaolo paid a visit to the MTN market this week to print a rare, privately placed tier two deal in euros.

Opportunistic corporate issuers had a strong day of it on Wednesday in Europe's bond market, increasing deal sizes and enjoying bulging order books as investors turned positive on the outlook for the market.