Santander

Volotea, the Spanish budget airline, has signed a €150m syndicated loan backed by the state, as the Covid-19 battered aviation industry struggles to get going again after a series of devastating blows.

Lat Am bond markets continued to demonstrate growing risk appetite as Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem began marketing hybrid bonds on Tuesday.

UniCredit attracted plenty of demand for a €1.25bn sale of non-preferred senior debt in euros on Wednesday, as issuers took advantage of strong funding conditions ahead of the summer period.

Bankinter continued the additional tier one (AT1) supply spree on Thursday, becoming the third issuer to launch this type of bond this week and receiving praise for the 6.25% coupon it achieved.

Sodexo, the French food service and facilities management firm, saw bumper demand for its €1bn no-grow dual-tranche bond issue on Wednesday, a day after it reported a 30% drop in revenue, and weeks after it shocked the US private placement (PP) market by saying it would repay around $1.6bn of debt early as it could do better in other financing markets.

Europe’s high grade bond market provided some mixed indications of sentiment on Monday with the deals for Takeda and SEE seeing notable differences in demand, leaving syndicate bankers trying to work out what this means for what is expected to be a busy week of issuance.

A worsening in credit conditions has squeezed some borrowers across EMEA out of syndicated loans and into the bilateral market. As syndicated loans bankers face another year of disappointing figures, market players are split over whether this trend will leave a more permanent dent in volumes. Mariam Meskin and Jon Hay report.

Agence Française de Développement printed a €1bn tap on Tuesday, while Fondo de Amortisacion del Deficit Electrico (FADE) landed €1.2bn at five years.

BBVA is the latest large European bank to have suffered a ratings downgrade during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Fitch having moved the issuer’s debt ratings down by a notch blaming a weaker operating environment in Mexico and Spain.

Five banks and insurers from across Europe issued senior debt this week, including two in green bond format, as they tried to find opportunities in a choppy market. Athene Global Funding, Banco de Sabadell, Virgin Money, Santander and Hypo Noe all priced deals.

Green bonds made up the majority of the supply in the euro bank bond market on Thursday, with Hypo Noe and Santander capitalising on strong demand for the asset class.

Virgin Money secured its first foothold in the euro market on Wednesday, selling €500m of senior debt from its holding company as part of a deal that had been initially been postponed because of Covid-19 concerns.