Portugal

The European Stability Mechanism has softened the eligibility criteria for its precautionary credit lines, under a eurozone reform package sealed by the European Union on Tuesday.

Portugal extended its duration with a bond exchange on Wednesday, exchanging two bonds maturing in 2020 and 2021 for taps of bonds maturing in 2023 and 2027.

Liberbank plans to issue its first covered bond, a transaction that will help refinance maturing debt borrowed under the European Central Bank's second Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO). Many other banks face a similar problem, but seem to be ignoring the €399bn maturity wall that is fast approaching, writes Bill Thornhill.

One of the three major Portuguese football clubs has announced plans to sell a new corporate bond. Sporting Lisbon is set to refinance its borrowing for a third time, having sold its first issue in 2008. However, the club has been through a particularly troublesome period on and off the pitch.

Portuguese covered bonds have held steady after Moody’s upgraded the sovereign rating to investment grade rating. Given the market’s poor liquidity, new issuance is likely to play a more pivotal role in determining the spread outlook than the sovereign's credit rating.

Sonae MC, the largest Portuguese food retailer in Portugal, joined the list of IPOs felled by volatile markets this week, but the IPO market had some positive news on Friday as Knorr Bremse traded up.

One of Europe’s major electricity producers, Portugal’s EDP, sold its first green bond on Tuesday, aligning its fundraising with the company’s green principles. Meanwhile, Dutch airport owner and operator Royal Schiphol Group announced plans for its debut green bond. Both followed French vehicle leasing company ALD’s inaugural green bond.

One of Europe’s major electricity producers, Portugal’s EDP sold its first green bond on Tuesday, aligning its fundraising with the company’s green principles.

Sonae MC, the largest food retailers in Portugal, has launched the roadshow for a €300m plus IPO in Lisbon.

Italy’s latest political drama is making investors nervous, and rightly so — when the leader of a country’s main governing party accuses European leaders of market ‘terrorism’, in the vein of an ‘EU equals the USSR’ conspiracy theorist, then you’d be right to dump its bonds. But the steadiness of Spanish and Portuguese govvies through all this shows not only that the term ‘eurozone periphery’ may have to be consigned to the historical dustbin, but that the firewalls erected by those same European leaders after the last sovereign debt crisis are standing firm.

The bumper IPO of Cepsa is likely going to give investors something different to look at when the market reopens in September with investors already excited by a number of new listings.

Portugal will need to disclose more information about its finances to proceed with its planned Panda bond issuance in China, according to a document published on the regulator’s website but later pulled.