Intesa Sanpaolo

UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo both escaped having to deduct the Atlante fund’s rescue of Banca Popolare di Vicenza from their capital. But the firms took very different equity damage from the debut deal, despite each owning a €300m stake. Owen Sanderson reports.

Banking is a game with rules, and regulators set them. That’s why, when the chips are down, they can change them to make banks look better.

French motorways operator Autoroutes du Sud brought a €500m no-grow bond to the market on Wednesday, drawing in a €2.2bn order book.

Atlante could reach out to more potential investors after being forced to underwrite all of Banca Popolare di Vicenza’s recent IPO, but the future of larger banks remains subject to the success of structural reforms.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena is beyond the help of Fondo Atlante, according to an ECB official, but new reforms could help the bank tackle its mountain of non-performing loans.

RCI Banque was one of four corporate issuers in the European bond market on Tuesday, as it printed €600m of seven year notes that won the skinniest new issue premium of the day.

The failure of the IPO of Banca Popolare di Vicenza leaves full responsibility for the bank’s future with the hastily put together Fondo Atlante — and is a poor omen for the listing of Veneto Banca, due to roll forward after a shareholder meeting this week.

Banca Popolare di Vicenza’s board is to meet later this afternoon to consider the results of its €1.5bn IPO, for which the bookbuild closed earlier today (Friday April 29).

UBI Banca became the first Italian lender to print tier two capital this year on Wednesday, laying the foundations for more periphery capital to follow.

Investing in Italy's bank recapitalisation fund could weaken larger lenders' vulnerable capital ratios, according to Moody’s.

Several of Europe’s IPOs moved forward today, with coverage and pricing updates and the launches of bookbuilds.

Italy’s strongest banks are to contribute to a fund that will back-stop the capital raises of weaker lenders, in a deal brokered by the government that has drawn scepticism from many investors, but optimism from others. Tom Porter reports.