Société Générale

Vinci, the French concessions and construction company, had Europe’s high grade corporate market to itself on Wednesday, with the borrower having an easier time slashing its spread for 10 year money during bookbuilding than lower rated issuers in recent days.

Two infrequent names ventured into the euro market to print debut deals in subordinated formats on Wednesday. Italy's Ilimity bank raised €200m with its first tier two, while French insurer Groupama scooped €500m with its inaugural tier three bond.

BNP Paribas has retained its place at the top of the EMEA loan league table for the first half of 2021, but its market share is much smaller than for the same period last year.

Repsol, the Spanish petrochemicals company, made its first foray into sustainability-linked bonds on Tuesday, though some of the power was taken out of the deal by investors judging the level too tight for a triple-B rated issuer.

Acciona Energia, the Spanish renewable energy company, is due to price its IPO at €26.73 a share, the bottom of the initial range, having closed order books on Tuesday afternoon, according to sources close to the transaction.

Erste Bank’s Croatian subsidiary was the sole bank to being new issue outside the covered bond on Tuesday, with bankers surprised at just how quiet the market is despite the attractive backdrop.

Groupama announced on Monday plans to sell the first tier three note with an environmental, social and governance (ESG) label, with bankers confident that the pick-up to non-preferred paper will entice green funds into the deal.

Erste Bank’s Croatian subsidiary will sell its first euro denominated preferred senior note next week, which it will count towards its minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

A smattering of smaller euro issuers made the most of an attractive window this week, as they looked to use the stable conditions to take “some risk off the table” ahead of the summer break.

The blockchain firsts in capital markets are coming quickly. DZ Bank is marketing a corporate Schuldschein that will run back office functions on a blockchain for the entire duration of the trade — the first time this has been done — while Société Générale’s subsidiary Forge is working on various permutations of trades to be issued using this form of distributed ledger technology. While blockchain tech is still in its infancy, it is set to disrupt capital markets, creating winners and losers.

European companies piled into the bond market on Wednesday with a variety of deals that favoured duration, as buoyant sentiment returned after being sapped by the US Federal Reserve last week.

Orange, the French telecoms company, launched €1.5bn of conventional bonds in two tranches on Wednesday, as the company’s group treasurer said he was waiting for the sustainability-linked bond market to mature before joining the quickly growing debt niche.