Italy

Caja Rural De Castilla-La Mancha, UniCredit Italy and Banca Popolare di Milano named leads for prospective euro covered bond benchmarks. The two Italian deals are likely to emerge next week but the Spanish deal will not follow until after a roadshow.

Investors’ reaction to the news that Italy will follow Germany in subordinating senior bondholders to corporate deposits has been made difficult to judge by a wider sell-off in FIG bonds.

Banco Popolare (BPIM) has obtained the approval of investors to remain the account bank on its own covered bond programme, even though this will result in those covered bonds being downgraded to a sub-investment grade rating.

Italy’s short term borrowing costs hit a euro-era record low on Wednesday — but, despite a bail-out deal between Greece’s government and creditors looking imminent, the country’s costs failed to move at a bill auction on the same day.

The privatisation IPO of Poste Italiane, set to be one of the highlights of the ECM calendar in the second half of 2015, took another step forward on Tuesday when the company filed its request for listing to Borsa Italiana and its prospectus to Consob for approval.

UniCredit’s second quarter profits were up almost 30% from last year, with the commercial and investment bank and Italian commercial bank taking most of the credit. The CEE business remains important, but Russia dragged the division sharply down.

The European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) will present its new dual-recourse bond structure to an audience of regulators, central bank heads and other stakeholders in October – a meeting which will be a barometer of official sector appetite for backing the product.

Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the Florence based banking foundation, sold a chunk of Intesa Sanpaolo shares on Tuesday in a block trade managed by Goldman Sachs.

CVC Capital Partners’ Cerved Group, an Italian credit information provider, will call €530m of bonds in January 2016, funded by a €660m loan, which will make the firm interest savings.

Italy’s biggest listed investment bank has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in UK asset manager Cairn Capital, as it seeks to broaden its footprint outside Italy.

Banca IMI has hired a global loan syndication head to front its new London syndication desk.

Italy’s 10 year borrowing costs fell at auction for the first time since March on Thursday, although the sovereign fell slightly short of its maximum target for the sale.