Intesa Sanpaolo

The Single Resolution Board (SRB) will not force all banks to make a linear progression towards their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL), in an effort to be more flexible during the Covid-19 pandemic. But financial institutions have still called on the authority this week to do more to prevent MREL from becoming a barrier to lending.

Private equity firms Bain Capital, Advent International and Clessidra have completed a huge sell-down of stock in Nexi, days after the Italian payments company unveiled plans for a €4.6bn merger with Sia, a close rival.

Nykredit Realkredit was set to launch its first additional tier one (AT1) in over five years on Tuesday, tightening its pricing by more than 50bp to close in on a level that looked close to fair value.

The European Banking Federation (EBF) has called on regulators to be more flexible in handing out minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) to newly merged businesses, as a way of encouraging consolidation.

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has picked six banks for a $700m borrowing.

Domestic bank consolidation has returned to the top of the agenda, but for financial institutions bankers, unlocking the most lucrative relationships requires years of coverage and an ability to look beyond the quick fix of M&A, writes David Rothnie.

The UK’s InterContinental Hotels and Italian airport Società Esercizi Aeroportuali have mandated for bond issues, giving investors another attempt to pick up some potentially higher yielding debt than has been on offer recently.

Svenska Handelsbanken found tight pricing for a dual offering of additional tier one (AT1) notes on Tuesday. It became the first European bank to set a dollar AT1 coupon of less than 4.5% for one of its tranches.

Iccrea Banca told the euro bond market on Wednesday that it was not looking to issue its debut senior deal until next week, giving investors more time to prepare for the transaction.

Ukrainian steel and mining company Metinvest was one of several emerging markets issuers to tap bond markets this week. The deal was several times oversubscribed, confirming that investors are still on the hunt for yield and are willing to look to single B rated emerging market credits for that.

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.

Falck Renewables, the Italian renewable energy company, has issued a €200m green convertible bond, joining the swathe of companies that have moved into the asset class recently.