NatWest Markets

Sub-investment grade Italian lenders Banco BPM and Illimity Bank were well-supported in the euro bond market on Thursday, as investors showed they were more than happy to look at riskier names in their search for yield.

Kommunalbanken, the financing agency for Norwegian municipalities, and L–Bank, the development bank for the State of Baden–Württemberg, built well covered order books as they brought what will likely be the SSA market’s final dollar benchmark deals of 2020.

Italian SME lender Illimity Bank is getting ready to sell its first senior bond by asking investors what sort of a price they would want to pay for the single B rated paper.

The UK’s SSE Renewables and Norway’s Equinor, two energy companies, have signed what lenders say is the largest ever offshore wind project financing, a £5.5bn package for a wind farm off the UK coast.

Kommunalbanken and L-Bank will each bring a dollar benchmark to the market on Tuesday, in what could be the final public SSA deals in the currency this year.

Sub-benchmark deals are not so much of a novelty anymore: a trio of rare names filled their boots with diminutive deals this week, with each attracting bumper demand.

E.On has completed the largest liability management exercise ever in Germany, shifting about €11.5bn of bonds issued by Innogy, which it has taken over, to its own balance sheet.

Close Brothers returned to the public market after a two year absence on Thursday, launching a 10 year sterling deal from its operating company at a very flat level compared to its shorter dated bonds.

Two public sector borrowers hit the euro bond market on Wednesday, raising what might well be the final benchmark funding of 2020.

Investors pumped €11.65bn of orders into €1.6bn of green and sustainable corporate bonds on Wednesday when paper company Stora Enso, utility Fluvius and real estate firm Cofinimmo all built bulging order books.

Stora Enso, the Finnish paper company, and Belgian utility Fluvius mandated banks to lead green bonds of 10 years or more on Monday, combining two recent themes in corporate bonds — ESG issuance and longer maturities.

Volkswagen led the dollar primary bond market this week as borrowers jumped into a crowded field to find funding ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays.