Italy

Italian issuer Mediobanca launched a €250m tap of its existing 2025 covered bond on Thursday, with the deal offering a small premium to its secondary curve. The increase follows news that the Italian bank acquired €2.9bn mortgages from Barclays suggesting it will become a more frequent issuer.

Intesa attracted a well oversubscribed book for its €1.25bn 10 year covered bond issued on Wednesday. The transaction did not initially seem to be an obvious trade to do, but the 1.5% yield along with its status as a national champion evidently gave a broad range of investors exactly the right incentives to take part.

Air Liquide and Saipem loans show that bankers and borrowers are not yet slowing down as they seek to tie up remaining bumper deals they launched in a busy fourth quarter.

Openjobmetis, the Italian recruitment business, priced its initial public offering on Tuesday, for a deal size of €33m. The shares began trading on Thursday, and closed up.

Ferrari, the Italian carmaker, has signed a bridge loan and a term loan of €2bn in total, and a revolver of €500m. The company has not disclosed the structure or pricing on the facilities, however it said the term loan comprises “the majority of the total facility.”

Two of Italy's 12 largest banks are below their capital requirements, according to the European Central Bank’s supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP).

SEB Germany offered the lowest ever yield for a primary covered bond when it issued a three year public sector Pfandbrief on Tuesday. But some sort of positive return was necessary, even if it was minuscule.

The European corporate bond market let its traditional reverence for Thanksgiving lapse, printing two deals during the US public holiday on Thursday.

Veneto Banca

Italy added to a week of record low auction yields for the eurozone periphery on Thursday — and more could be on the way as the sovereign lines up to sell longer dated debt on Friday.

Exor, the BBB+ rated, listed holding company controlled by the Agnelli family, issued a benchmark seven year bond on Thursday.

Crédit Mutuel-CIC (CM-CIC) and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPIM) issued 10 year covered bonds into relatively weak market conditions on Wednesday. Because of its larger size and tighter spread the French deal was probably the frailer of the two, and while both issuers met their funding targets in terms of size and spread, neither proved particularly popular.