Intesa Sanpaolo

Europe's corporate bond market is sauntering towards the holidays at a gentle pace, with spreads slightly wider and no one in a hurry. But deals are still available for issuers that want them.

FinecoBank was more than nine times subscribed for its first ever sale of an additional tier one instrument on Thursday, despite pricing the deal at a level that was lower than what might have been expected for a similar offering from UniCredit, its former parent.

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Italy's state railway company, launched a €700m seven year green bond into an otherwise empty corporate bond market on Thursday. The Independence Day holiday in the US kept markets quiet this week, and eager investors may be frustrated next week too.

UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo printed €3bn of new debt this week, almost doubling the amount sold by Italian banks this month. Around €6.5bn of bonds have been sold in June, making it the largest amount of Italian bank bonds sold in a single month since early 2014.

Motability Operations Group, the UK company that operates the UK government's scheme to provide cars for the disabled, printed a £1.438bn-equivalent euro and sterling three tranche bond on Wednesday, in a busy day that also brought a €1bn two part issue from OMV, the Austrian oil and gas company.

Sharjah-based United Arab Bank (UAB) has raised a $195m loan from a consortium of local and European banks, as borrowers in the region continue to diversify their portfolios with international lenders.

With equities in green, Thursday was a fair sailing day for corporate bond issues in Europe, and five issuers took advantage, including two French names and two Swedish. Demand was strong and terms tight.

Intesa Sanpaolo has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rubicon Capital Advisers, as part of the Italian bank’s attempts to beef up origination and distribution.

Eutelsat, the Baa3/BBB- rated satellite company, launched a benchmark eight year euro bond on Thursday, into a market kept empty by the European Central Bank's press conference. Bilfinger and Cabot were the only other corporate issuers.

Thursday’s corporate bond new issue action in Europe confirmed the picture presented on Wednesday: that investors were determined not to let macroeconomic issues bother them, and were piling into new issues. The day was less blemished than the previous one had been by volatility, enabling issuers to get some very tight spreads.

European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

Spain’s Merlin Properties has signed a €1.55bn sustainability linked loan, with the real estate company becoming the latest in a long line of names to add green and social elements to their bank funding.