Intesa Sanpaolo

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.

Italian SME lender Illimity Bank is getting ready to sell its first senior bond by asking investors what sort of a price they would want to pay for the single B rated paper.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena found plenty of demand for a new senior bond in the euro market on Tuesday, aided by growing speculation about the possibility of a merger with UniCredit.

Bank lenders are hopeful that volumes across the typically active central and eastern Europe region will pick up, after what has been a disappointing year. This week Romanian meat processing company Carmistin Group raised a syndicated loan from a range of regional lenders, which is one of only five deals signed in the country this year.

Sub-benchmark deals are not so much of a novelty anymore: a trio of rare names filled their boots with diminutive deals this week, with each attracting bumper demand.