Société Générale

French insurer Axa issued its inaugural green tier two bond on Wednesday and attracted a peak order book of more than €3.4bn for the €1bn deal.

Dexia Credit Local was able to push the pricing of its new dollar benchmark on Tuesday thanks to pent-up demand for high quality paper in the currency.

Axa is lining up its inaugural green deal in tier two format, becoming the latest financial borrower to combine a subordinated bond with an ESG label.

Verbund, the Austrian electricity company, became the first European issuer to sell a green sustainability-linked bond on Wednesday, combining the benefits of two different approaches to sustainable finance in a single deal.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market was busy this week, as slightly improved market conditions prompted a diverse set of issuers to lock in funding before the end of the quarter.

Rating: Aaa/AA/AAA

The European Union will complete the funding for its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency programme next year, rather than this summer as previously planned.

Europe’s corporate bond investors got stuck into unrated debt on Thursday, as German airport operator Fraport and French care home company Orpea printed bonds.

E.On, the German electricity company, became the second corporate issuer in as many days to issue green bonds in line with the draft EU Taxonomy. It matched Verbund by printing them flat to fair value.

Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company Seplat Petroleum entered the international bond markets on Thursday seeking to raise dollar funding. As primary issuance re-starts in the CEEMEA region, Seplat is one of a few high yielding names testing the temperature.

Verbund, the Austrian electricity company, became the first European issuer to sell a green sustainability-linked bond on Wednesday. The highly rated issuer printed 20 year debt at a razor-thin spread.

Financial issuance got underway in the euro primary market on Wednesday, with borrowers keen to bring forward ESG-labelled bonds in the first deals of the week.