Spain

Banco de Sabadell on Wednesday looked to replicate the success of Mediobanca earlier this week in capitalising on appetite for green bonds. Appetite for the Spanish lender’s inaugural green preferred senior bond led it to print the deal through fair value.

Spanish telecommunications infrastructure company Cellnex has finished its €4bn rights issue to fund further M&A opportunities, with an extremely high oversubscription.

Spanish Cédulas reform has been widely anticipated for years. However, whether Spain is ready to execute the sweeping reforms necessary to bring the regime into line with the European Union’s covered bond directive remains to be seen, as the impact of the coronavirus risks diverting attention.

Energias de Portugal, Portugal’s largest utility, closed its cash call in Lisbon on Friday with 93.8% of shareholders taking up their rights. However, the company attracted demand worth 256% of the €1bn offering. Market watchers hope the result augurs well for Spanish telecoms operator Cellnex's rights issue on Thursday.

Spain has submitted an application for more than €20bn from the EU’s Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) fund.

Covered bond issuers using programmes containing a special purpose vehicle (SPV) have more guidance on the treatment of bad loans and protect bondholders further compared with those using integrated templates, Fitch said this week when assessing the risk coronavirus era mortgage payment holidays pose to the asset class.

IAG, the airline holding company which owns British Airways, has launched a €2.75bn (£2.49bn) rights issue to give it enough liquidity to withstand Covid-19 disruption until 2023.

The UK government’s decision over the weekend to reintroduce a quarantine on travellers from Spain is set to make a rights issue far more difficult for International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), the airline holding company which owns British Airways, according to equity capital markets sources.

EMEA’s equity capital markets were buzzing on Friday morning after Goldman Sachs placed a 13.2m block of shares in Cellnex, the Spanish telecoms tower company, which allowed the company’s largest shareholder to monetise rights that it intends not to exercise in the issuer's forthcoming €4bn rights issue.

Cellnex, the Spanish telecommunications towers operator, has launched a €4bn underwritten rights issue to fund acquisitions.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, the New York-listed Spanish infrastructure company focused on renewable energy assets, is the latest company to sell a green convertible bond.

Market participants expect that bank debt issuance activity will slow down in anticipation of earnings season over the next few weeks. But deal arrangers suggest banks will still be keen to access the primary market during this period, should conditions remain favourable.