Italy

Carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has amended its existing €6.25bn revolving credit facility to stretch out the maturity to 2023, but loans bankers are concerned about the low volumes of business to look forward to.

Banca Carige said in a statement on Wednesday that market conditions were “not yet in place” for its planned tier two deal.

Italian business software vendor TeamSystem returned to the public bond market to refinance a floating rate note it placed privately in 2016, as high yield fund managers increase their demand for floating rate debt this year.

Intesa Sanpaolo was able to raise €1.25bn of senior funding at the long end of its maturity curve on Monday, despite being the first Italian bank to access the market following the result of the country’s recent general election.

Credito Valtellinese, the Lombard bank which is raising capital to meet requirements of the European Central Bank, has announced that investors have taken 83% of its pre-emptive rights issue, with several firms anchoring the deal.

Investors are seeing the positives from last weekend’s Italian general election — despite a strong showing for populist parties and a hung parliament result — driving the 10 year BTP/Bund spread to a tighter point than it was before the vote.

A combination of economic reforms and economic turnaround has made Italy into one of the fastest growing equity success stories in Europe, something which will likely continue despite the increasing likelihood of an anti-EU government following Sunday’s election.

The results of Italy’s general election on Sunday indicated swelling support for right wing populist ideologies in Italy, but the euro SSA market appears to have accepted the result with equanimity, although only one borrower has popped its head over the parapet so far.

Italian equity capital markets players are waiting for clarity on the country's political future after Sunday's election gave the whip hand to the populist Five Star Movement and the anti-immigration Northern League.

An awful lot of capital and financial market participants are relaxed about Sunday's Italian election, predicting that coalitions and deadlock will remain a staple of Italy's political system. But others urge caution — and hedging — while the going is good for fear that complacency is taking hold, writes Costas Mourselas.

The issues surrounding Italy’s debt burden refuse to go away, but not all market participants believe that a change of government on Sunday would be able to stall or reverse the country’s recent economic progress.

This weekend’s Italian general election promises to be another mesmerising episode in the soap opera of Italian politics, but equity markets are largely confident that the work done to shore up the Italian banking system will be enough to offset any shock result on Sunday.