Poland

A Pln700m ($168.9m) selldown of stock in Play Communications, the Polish telecommunications company, has shown that investor appetite towards some emerging market stocks is still alive, despite the asset class being hit hard during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Republic of Poland has printed €1.5bn 0% 2025s on Monday, selling the deal at 100.512 to give the first ever negative yield in euros — minus 0.102% — from any global EM issuer.

The Republic of Poland pulled in €6bn of orders for a five year benchmark bond on Monday, with the issue four times covered as coronavirus fear still ripped financial markets.

Caffil issued the tightest French 10 year of 2019 amid a flurry of other well received covered bonds issued on Tuesday by DZ Hyp, mBank and Santander UK. While the European Central Bank’s return to the market helped deals go well, it was not needed amid an improvement in risk appetite.

Poland's mBank Hipoteczny has mandated leads for a roadshow ahead of a planned sub-benchmark sized deal. It could surface in a busier than expected market in November now that some issuers will be reconsidering their funding strategies after the European Central Bank bought more than anticipated in the primary market this week.

ING Poland has issued its first covered bond, a deal secured on green assets denominated in zloty. The issuer plans to return early next year with its first euro denominated green covered bond in benchmark size, said chief executive Boda Miroslaw,

The branding may be on the way out, but there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the potential for real progress in the next phase of the Capital Markets Union.

Globalworth Real Estate Investments, the London-listed real estate investment trust focused on commercial properties in Romania and Poland, is preparing to raise up to €276.45m of fresh equity to finance its bulging pipeline of acquisitions.

Poland’s prefunding for 2020 may even be higher as a proportion of total funding than the 34% it reached for 2019, said Robert Zima, head of the debt management office (DMO) in Warsaw, thanks to an expected lower budget deficit which means that the country’s total borrowing requirements are set to fall.

Poland's Bank Pekao is planning to tap the Eurobond market for the first time in 2020, in order to set down a senior benchmark for the subsequent issuance of capital ratio raising bonds, according to Pawel Rzezniczak, head of investor relations and corporate development at the bank.

Corporate borrowing activity is expected to be sustained throughout the second half of the year as borrowers "take advantage" of the liquidity in the loan market. The expectation comes in the aftermath of two large dividend recapitalisation transactions by Polish corporates, Allegro and Żabka, in the second quarter.

Polish convenience store operator Żabka Polska is expected to close its dividend recap imminently, according to market participants. Bankers have compared the deal to the dividend recap transaction that Polish e-commerce platform Allegro completed in May.