Italy

Despite Italian bank stocks being badly out of favour, Banco Popolare has achieved 99.4% subscription for its €996m rights issue, leaving only a tiny rump to be placed in the coming days. But Veneto Banca's IPO is likely to fail, leaving the bank in the arms of Fondo Atlante.

Waste Italia, the Italian disposal and recycling company, has requested a standstill from investors in its €200m high yield bond, after missing a coupon payment on it in May.

Enav, the Italian air traffic control system company, began its privatisation IPO on Monday, with the publication of research. Meanwhile, plans are taking shape for the IPO of Avio, the Italian space propulsion firm.

The €2.5bn rights issue of Banco Popular Español has been oversubscribed, the bank will announce on Friday, after it won solid support from core shareholders.

The €1bn IPO and highly dilutive capital increase of Veneto Banca is thought likely by bankers involved to be bought in its entirety by Fondo Atlante, as happened to the similar €1.5bn deal for Banca Popolare di Vicenza at the beginning of May.

Salini Impregilo, the Italian construction firm, sold €300m of non-callable notes on Thursday to refinance its old 2018 notes, and finance part of its acquisition of US peer Lane Industries.

A vote for the UK to exit the European Union next week is likely to intensely magnify a strong rush into safe haven assets, but some bankers are still confident that after the initial furore of a ‘Brexit’ there could be room for issuers eyeing euro deals in July to go ahead. And, if the UK opts to stay in the EU, issuers are likely to be lining up to print in July.

FCA Bank, the Italian car finance bank, joined US company Sysco in issuing a euro corporate bond on Tuesday, despite turbulent market conditions — and like Sysco, achieved a good result.

Two new borrowers launched deals in the European high yield market on Monday, PVH and Salini Impregilo. Both are double-B rated, like most of last week’s deals.

Fitch may assign a rating uplift to Italian SME covered bonds, or Titolo Obbligazionari Collateralizzati. The upbeat rating assessment follows a survey conducted by analysts at Société Générale which suggests more than 40% of covered bond investors would consider buying such deals.

Banco Popolare’s €1bn rights issue, for which the pricing was announced on Thursday, is a “done deal” according to a banker away from it — so much so that Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Mediobanca have kept the underwriting to themselves.

In this round-up, RMB deposits shrink further in Singapore and Hong Kong, the Stock Connect scheme southbound channel continues to dominate trading, China prepares for direct trading of RMB and Korean won, and Italian enterprises are found to be warming up to the RMB. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s coverage this week.