Italy

Two equity block trades or rapid sales were completed successfully in Europe on Monday night.

Covered bond primary activity slowed this week with just two €500m seven year trades emerging from banks in the Netherlands and Italy.

World Bank tapped Italian retail investors for $165m this week, issuing a 10 year sustainable development bond.

Portugal cut its funding costs at a bond auction and Italy lined up for a sale on Wednesday, as European Central Bank support protected eurozone periphery government bonds from any knock-on effects from a terrorist attack in Brussels on Tuesday.

Banco Popolare Sondrio returned to the covered bond market for its second ever deal on Wednesday. The substantially oversubscribed transaction was priced close to fair value reflecting a concern that peripheral supply could dry up.

Two block trades have been launched in Europe this evening (Monday March 21), in shares of Iren, the Italian multi-utility group, and IMCD, the Dutch speciality chemicals distribution company. While IMCD has been the subject of three previous block trades, there have been none in Iren, according to Dealogic.

Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano may look to raise further capital as the two banks close in on agreeing a final merger plan with the European Central Bank this week.

Italian TV producer Giglio Group's €3.5m minibond began trading on the Milan-based ExtraMOT Pro exchange this week — showing that the market is still finding issuers, despite the European Central Bank's efforts to boost bank lending.

Intesa SanPaolo captured the robust improvement in peripheral market sentiment following the European Central Bank’s meeting last week with its €1.25bn seven year.

Eurozone periphery sovereigns are stamping down their borrowing costs at auctions amid a wave of dovish central bank actions — but one sub-sovereign in the region stands alone in suffering a sharp rise in its yields.

Italy will bring the next line of its domestic inflation linked BTP Italia product in three weeks, sticking with a similar process to its last issue.

Intesa SanPaolo has captured the strong improvement in peripheral market sentiment with its €1.25bn seven year covered bond issued on Friday which attracted the highest order book of the year. At the same time Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt has mandated leads for its debut covered bond.