Italy
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Italian banks have made the most of improving market conditions in 2019, with the average cost of five year senior debt having fallen by 40bp in the last six months, according to Bank of Italy data. -
Credito Valtellinese (Creval) found strong demand for a €300m preferred senior bond on Tuesday, allowing it to push the pricing through its guidance range.
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The positive market backdrop has driven smaller and less well-known bank issuers to come forward with rare new bond issues. But they are showing up just as investors pack up for the year, meaning they must work hard to lure enough demand, writes David Freitas.
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Investors have embraced the bonds of smaller European financial institutions this year, as they search for higher returns in an environment where interest rates are expected to remain low for a long time.
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Intesa Sanpaolo and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) gave investors the chance to put money into preferred senior paper on Tuesday. Both trades attracted chunky order books and gave away a small new issue premium.
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Shares in Danish renewable energy firm Ørsted and in Salini Impregilo, the Italian construction company, continued to trade well this week, generating strong returns for block investors.
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At its results presentation on Thursday, UniCredit's CEO Jean Pierre Mustier scotched rumours that it was planning to set up a new German holding company and revealed instead plans for a holding company in Italy, designed to make its organisational structure more efficient for regulatory capital and resolution purposes.
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UniCredit’s has chalked up its best quarterly numbers in a decade, its CEO said on Thursday, with the performance of the investment bank lifted by soaring trading revenues. The Italian lender claimed victory on its ‘Transform 2019’ plan, ahead of the launch of a new business strategy early next month.
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UniCredit sold its entire stake in Mediobanca through a €784m block trade on Wednesday night, before announcing its third quarter results on Thursday morning.
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Luxembourg is issuing a euro benchmark bond on Wednesday, for the first time for almost three years, setting out to raise €1.7bn with a zero coupon seven year bond. Other issuers are waiting to pounce if the European Central Bank's quantitative easing resumption creates the right conditions.
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UniCredit’s search for a more efficient corporate structure shows how an incomplete Banking Union is beginning to weigh on pan-European financial institutions.
