Intesa Sanpaolo

Banco BPM unveiled an ambitious new strategic plan this week, accounting for the potential impact of Covid-19 in northern Italy. The bank intends to reduce its reliance on the European Central Bank (ECB) for funding and take advantage of regulatory changes allowing additional tier one to be included in Pillar 2 capital requirements.

Banks are delaying their plans to raise funding in the euro market, as credit spreads drifted wider on news about the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Omani gas transportation company, Oman Gas Co, a branch of state-owned Oman Oil Co, has sold an $800m credit facility to local lenders.

Credit spreads lurched wider at the beginning of the week, with investors reacting to reports of further cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus outside of China. The reaction fell short of panic, but bankers said that some issuers were moving to delay their plans for bond deals.

Rating: Baa1/BB-/B+

Intesa Sanpaolo chose to split an additional tier one (AT1) deal into two tranches on Thursday, with one eye on the secondary performance of the bonds and the other on the maturity profile of its debt capital stock.

Banca IFIS sold a senior bond this week, as Italian bank bond spreads rallied following Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover bid for UBI Banca.

Intesa Sanpaolo caught the market by surprise when it launched a takeover bid for UBI Banca on Monday night. The announcement sent credit and equity valuations surging higher, with investors pinning their hopes on consolidation in the Italian banking sector.

Italian banks have been piling into the primary bond market in the first quarter, capitalising on an incredible rally in the sector as investors look for new sources of value.

Vakifbank printed its $750m 5.25% 2025s on Wednesday from a book that reached higher than $4.3bn at its peak, but the note was seen below re-offer in London’s secondary market on Thursday morning.

Turkey's Vakifbank has released initial price guidance for a dollar benchmark, with the intention of printing the deal later on Wednesday.

Italian construction giant Salini Impregilo offered to exchange its 3.75% notes, due in 2021, to new non-call life senior notes, maturing in seven years. The €250m deal is set to be completed by Friday this week with initial price thoughts of 3.875% — indicating that Salini may have lost favour among investors and will have to pay extra to extend maturities.