Italy

Italian oil drilling company Saipem has revealed its bank group following the company's debut loan syndication.

Italian oil refinery company Saras signed a €265m loan on December 10, cutting its margin on the refinanced facility by about 150bp.

Italy could move to ban banks’ sale of subordinated debt to retail investors, after bondholders suffered losses during the recent rescue of four failed lenders.

UniCredit has appointed a new head of funding as part of an internal reorganisation.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, for a number of years subdued activity in IPOs was believed to be the norm on Italian exchanges. Yet since 2014, political and economic trends are changing the script — prompting a boom in Italian IPO activity, according to Stefania Godoli, global head of equity capital markets at UniCredit.

Intesa Sanpaolo issued a €1.25bn 10 year covered bond on Wednesday, a transaction that did not initially seem to be an obvious trade, but which in the end proved very successful.

Italian oil drilling company Saipem has completed a €4.7bn debt refinancing, with 21 banks participating in its first syndicated loan.

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.”