Natixis

Issuers in the financial institutions bond market do not want to see the chance for cheap funding slip, so more are lining up deals. On Monday, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) mandated leads for a preferred senior bond in euros, and UK insurer Utmost International said it was aiming for an senior unsecured bond in sterling.

Investors staged a protest over pricing in the non-preferred senior bond market this week, causing one transaction to fail and putting two others at risk of falling flat. Comfortable with their returns for 2019 and happy to be able to choose from a glut of new bond offerings, funds have simply been happy to divert their attention elsewhere. Tyler Davies reports.

La Banque Postale is looking to strengthen its capital position with a new additional tier one bond, beginning investor meetings on Friday. The issuer joins a growing trend towards issuers employing six month par call options in their perpetual securities.

A flurry of new deals this week had issuers having to compete for investors’ attention. Bankers said that higher yielding deals were much easier to sell, with non-preferred senior bonds from Bankia and Lloyds Banking Group proving more popular than a tighter print from Belfius.

Spanish banks are using strong market conditions to their advantage towards the start of November, with Banco de Sabadell completing its annual funding plans this week and UniCaja Banco getting ready to launch its debut tier two transaction.

Finnish agency Municipality Finance has faced a decline in callable MTN issuance this year as investors shun the format and move “more and more towards benchmarks with greater liquidity”, according to funding manager Martin Svedholm.

Banco de Sabadell completed its annual funding plan on Tuesday with a €500m preferred senior bond, adding a call option to the transaction in a clear sign that it is likely to be used as part of the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

After making its debut in the capital markets last week, France’s Action Logement Services (ALS) plans to issue bonds and private placements across various maturities under its 100% sustainable euro medium-term note (EMTN) programme.

French car parts supplier Faurecia dipped into the bond markets again as it prepares to take over full control of its joint venture with Continental. It is adding €250m of senior notes to the €500m of 2026 notes it issued in the spring.

Rusal has signed the first internationally syndicated sustainability-linked loan from Russia. The heavily oversubscribed facility is part of a slowly growing shift towards green financing in Russia, said bankers.

Investors piled into a new hybrid bond for hotel group Accor this week to oversubscribe the €500m deal by almost six times. The demand reflected a ramping up of the hunt for yield as the European Central Bank stokes the fires of its corporate bond buying programme.

France’s FFP issued a €300m no grow seven year debut bond on Wednesday, marking a rare market outing from an unrated French credit this year.