Intesa Sanpaolo

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.

Banca IMI, the investment bank of Italian financial services group Intesa Sanpaolo, has become the latest European firm to offer client clearing through CDSClear, the Paris-based LCH clearing house.

Switzerland’s Coca-Cola HBC has amended and extended its revolving facility, with the soft drink bottler supersizing its loan to €800m and including a sustainability element.

After issuing a £500m seven year bond in March, Glencore repeated the performance, this time in the euro market. It issued a €500m 7.5 year bond that achieved a similar book size and price tightening. Telecom Italia also issued for the second time this year, after losing its Fitch investment grade rating on Friday.

Spain’s Abertis Infraestructuras has shifted the obligations of around €9.97bn of loans to itself from its holding company, with the toll roads group immediately paying down a sizeable portion of the debt.

Two renewable energy companies achieved successful euro bond issues on Thursday. Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy firm, and ERG, the Italian wind energy group, issuing in green format, both tightened their prices and finished with plenty of over-subscription in their books.

The Arab Republic of Egypt has released initial price guidance for its dual tranche euro bond at levels that two lead managers said were around 40bp back of its curve.

Spain’s Acciona has signed a €675m environmental, social and governance-linked loan. Lenders piled into the infrastructure and renewable energy group's deal after launch, enabling the size to grow by 35%.

Four new corporate bonds hit the market on Wednesday. In a change from recent days, all the deals were of moderate size and single tranched. Terna, the Italian grid operator, and Banque PSA France were typical in launching €500m no-grow deals. Book sizes diverged strongly, with those two issuers getting heavy oversubscription, while Aroundtown and Voestalpine had much less.