Ireland

Ireland won kudos for the swift economic recovery that followed the sovereign debt crisis, but with a considerable portion of residential mortgage loans overdue or restructured, its housing market was in a terrible state even before the impact of Covid lockdowns, let alone the peril a disorderly Brexit may bring.

AIB Group's new euro tier two capital issue, its first green bond, was comfortably subscribed on Wednesday, lifting confidence in the bank debt market after a difficult start to the week.

Irish insulation firm Kingspan has raised €750m-equivalent in US private placements, in its first green issue in the market.

Ryanair completed a non-pre-emptive share placing on Thursday evening to strengthen its balance sheet to withstand the next phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and to take advantage of growth opportunities. Despite analysts not thinking the company needed extra capital, sources said the company's CEO Michael O'Leary made a compelling case to investors for the need to boost its balance sheet.

Ireland's Dalata Hotel Group was in the market with a 19.9% accelerated share placing on Tuesday, a move the company said would give it the firepower to take advantage of growth opportunities stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd (MIFL), the international asset management arm of Italy’s Mediolanum has appointed a new portfolio manager for its European equities team in Dublin.

Germany is calling for bids for state-owned Depfa Bank, the once prolific issuer of Irish and German covered bonds whose parent, Hypo Real Estate, was taken into public ownership as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. There is little chance, however, that the transaction could see the issuer return to the covered bond market.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, June 22. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, June 15. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

AIB Group priced a €625m additional tier one (AT1) bond in euros this week, following several volatile days of trading for the asset class. The deal surpassed expectations in terms of size and pricing, having been run along with a tender offer for one of the Irish lender’s existing AT1s.

Rating: A2/AA-/A+

There were no issues of competing supply on Tuesday as three eurozone sovereigns amassed big order books, buoyed by last week’s expansion of the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (Pepp).