Italy

Banca Carige’s planned tier two bond, which tides it over until it can raise equity, will present the FIG market with some unusual features. But the unfamiliar intervention from a branch of Italy’s deposit guarantee scheme appears not to have roused the European Commission’s attention with regard to state aid rules.

Continued uncertainty over the budget negotiations between the Italian government and the European Union is likely to delay Italian equity capital market deals in 2019, said bankers.

UniCredit’s CFO Mirko Bianchi has been on the road to meet North American investors after the bank released its third quarter results. From the end of the month, it expects to be prepared to issue its second ever senior non-preferred bond.

The Italian government’s refusal to make any concessions to the European Commission over its budget plans took investors by surprise this week, moving the 10 year BTP/Bund spread to its highest level since early 2013.

Banca Carige announced its capital recovery plan on Monday, relying on friends and family to help it keep going. Italian banks have agreed to support it with €320m though the interbank deposit protection fund (FITD), and it will also be looking to existing shareholders.

Italian construction firm Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna officially announced it would miss the November 15 coupon payment of its 2023 bonds.

UniCredit has moved its target date for issuing instruments to meet its total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirement from the end of this year to the end of March next year. Meanwhile, chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier is set to invest in the bank’s equity and additional tier one (AT1) notes.

Utility company Snam has converted an existing €3.2bn revolving credit facility into a sustainable deal, joining the growing chorus of southern European firms switching their bank lines for environmental, social and governance-friendly financing alternatives.

A mix of political, economic and market forces is “shaping up to be a perfect storm” for the eurozone debt markets, investors have warned.

Italy’s government bonds rallied to their tightest spreads versus Bunds since the start of the month after S&P opted to hold its rating for the country at BBB, while moving its outlook to negative from stable last Friday. But while there may be some respite for Italy in the weeks ahead, Germany chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision on Monday to step down at the end of her term in 2021 has left analysts fretting about the overall path of the eurozone.

The price of Italian bank shares and bonds rose on Monday morning after local media reported that the government was weighing up extraordinary measures to help the embattled lenders. The next few weeks are crucial for the banks, with the release of stress test results and third quarter earnings.

The European Central Bank made clear on Thursday that it will not be Italy’s doting aunt to the European Commission’s disciplinarian parent after the latter dumped the sovereign on the naughty step by rejecting its budget plans this week. Some investors warned that while Italy’s problems are contained for now, further antagonism between Rome and the eurozone’s authorities raises the risk of a junk rating for Italy and contagion to other markets.