Intesa Sanpaolo

Italian banks from across the spectrum of credit quality have accessed debt capital markets this week, as they enjoy funding costs that might not have seemed possible in the middle of the term of the country’s previous government.

The Republic of Kazakhstan and the State of Montenegro have mandated for the first euro bonds from the CEEMEA region since the market re-opened in September.

No less than three dual tranche corporate bond deals hit the market on Tuesday, as BMW, Abertis, and AbbVie jostled for the attention of investors with €2bn, €1.5bn and €1.4bn deals.

Italian banks are taking advantage of excellent new issuance conditions, as investors re-establish their confidence in the country's new government. On Tuesday it was Banca Monte dei Paschi’s turn to do so with a euro-denominated preferred senior bond, one day after UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo.

Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has closed its annual refinancing, securing a $1.3bn facility from a range of international lenders. The facility, Cocobod's second international borrowing this year, has tighter margins than last year's round, illustrating a healthy appetite for one of Africa's most frequent borrowers.

Corporate bond issuance in euros was busy again on Tuesday, with four deals, but they were moderately sized, so the total was nothing like Monday's haul of €6bn and £1.25bn.

The frenzy of investment grade corporate bond issuance in Europe intensified on Thursday, when eight companies came to market, issuing a total of €6.6bn of paper in euros. That brought the total for the first four days of this week to over €20bn. Despite the heavy supply, issuers have found sufficient demand to support their notes.

MEA-based waste management services provider Averda has amended and extended an existing term loan facility, garnering 70% oversubscription.

Hungarian gas and oil company MOL has extended part of an existing €555m revolving credit facility by one year, in what is one of the few sparks of activity in the country's syndicated loan market so far this year.

Holders of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s €300m 10 year tier two have already been burned in the secondary market, with the price of the bonds having plummeted since their initial sale on July 16.

Russia's largest producer of anthracite coal, Siberian Anthracite, is expected to complete a loan refinancing in September. The deal will see Sibanthracite switch its existing loan facility from dollars to euros, as bankers offer a number of reasons for the switch, including preventative protection from sanctions and the elimination of operational delays.

Terna, the Italian high voltage grid operator, returned to the corporate bond market on Thursday, for the third time this year. It joined a steady procession of Italian companies that have been issuing bonds, taking advantage of the present benign market conditions, with an eye to the risk of volatility blighting their market access in the autumn.