Spain

The transposition of the EU's Covered Bond Directive (CBD) into Spanish law is likely to be credit positive, according to a poll of delegates who attended the Association of Financial Markets in Europe’s 12th annual Spanish Capital Markets Virtual Conference on Thursday.

This week was the busiest of the year so far for bank senior supply in euros, as issuers took advantage of strong market conditions after posting full year results.

After nearly a year without any travel, many of us have become desperate to leave the gilded cage of Hong Kong. I, for one, would give anything to be able to laze on the beaches of Thailand with a Piña Colada in my hand — if I could only avoid the three-week quarantine on my return to Hong Kong.

Spain’s new 50 year euro benchmark, which was priced last week, has performed well in the secondary market with the spread narrowing by 3bp, according to levels provided by ICE Data Services.

Rating: Baa1/A/A-

Unlike its last syndication in January, when Spain lost over €75bn of orders after an aggressive move in pricing, the sovereign took a more cautious approach on its return to the public market this week to print its biggest ever 50 year bond.

After taking an aggressive approach for its last syndication in January which resulted in a shocking loss of over €75bn of orders, Spain returned to a more moderate and conventional pricing process as it came to the market for a new 50 year bond on Tuesday.

Spain will lead the public sector borrowers' charge into the primary bond market this week with its second ever 50 year benchmark syndicated deal ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday.

Belfius Bank and Santander found strong support among bank treasury investors in the euro market this week, helping them to print new preferred senior deals at very low yields.

CaixaBank and BayernLB were able to sail through fair value with green non-preferred senior deals this week, bucking a trend for rising new issue premiums in 2021. Bankers say a lack of supply is finally helping borrowers to exert more power over their pricing.

Banco Santander has followed Belfius Bank in launching a very successful new seven year bond this week, as bank treasury accounts lend their support to low yielding preferred senior paper.

Cellnex, the Spanish telecoms infrastructure company, has returned to the equity capital markets with a huge €7bn rights issue to finance its acquisition of French competitor Hivory from Altice and KKR.