Santander

Financial institutions bond bankers are hoping that the additional tier one market is back in fashion with investors, after UBS was able to attract a whopping $16bn of orders for a $2.5bn transaction this week.

Spanish telecoms company Telefónica on Monday launched the first green bond in euros from the telecoms sector. The firm, rated as one of Spain’s leading companies in the fight against climate change, published its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework in November but had to wait two months to sell its first green bond.

Bankers and investors are expecting lower volumes of non-preferred senior issuance for 2019, with the majority of issuers looking at the asset class tending to be smaller and infrequent users of capital markets.

Additional tier ones issued by Banco Santander plunged in value on Wednesday, after the Spanish financial institution reiterated that it would only redeem capital securities at their first call dates if it was cost efficient to do so.

French hotel company Accor launched new hybrid and senior bond issues on Thursday after announcing the deals at the end of last week. The new deals finance tender offers for some of the company’s existing hybrid and senior notes.

French supermarket chain Auchan attracted plenty of demand for its third consecutive January new issue but it had to pay a hefty new issue premium to ensure the deal got done. The supermarket sector is one of several retail sectors priming investors for poor annual results.

The shifting sands of bank regulation make it unlikely that it will ever be worth thinking about additional tier one bonds as perpetual instruments.

Volkswagen Bank started its funding for 2019 with a hefty four tranche deal on Thursday that will contribute to its minimum requirement of own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) when the German regulator decides what that should be.

The path from M&A rainmaker to CEO is a perilous one, as John Cryan and Andrea Orcel have proved. Will Christian Meissner be the next senior banker to try it, asks David Rothnie.

Following the success of Engie’s green hybrid bond the previous week, the French energy company’s Portuguese peer, EDP, launched its own version on Wednesday. While EDP’s deal did not achieve quite the same demand or tight pricing, the result was still a good one.

Kier Group shares perked up by as much as 1.6% on Tuesday after the UK construction company said it had parted ways with its CEO following the completion of its troubled £264m rights issue.

New issuance returned to the corporate bond market on Tuesday as Auchan and Vonovia attracted €8bn of demand for their new deals after two days without any trades. The new issuance spreads they paid differed markedly however.