Spain

Banco de Crédito Social Cooperativo was warmly welcomed on its return to the tier two market on Wednesday, as Spanish banks capitalise on strong conditions by plugging the market with subordinated debt.

Spain’s CaixaBank picked banks to arrange the sale of its first additional tier one (AT1) on Friday, the latest in a string of capital issues from the country’s financial institutions.

Santander placed three taps of a senior non-preferred May 2023 line on May 19, raising a total of €270m. The issuer was one of the first Spanish banks to issue this type of private placement, which drew significant investor demand.

Moody’s now takes a more lenient approach to rating covered bonds compared to newcomer DBRS, DZ Bank covered bond research analysts have revealed. The change should help protect its share of the market which may be shrinking due to the prevalence of covered bonds with only one rating.

Permira has offloaded the rest of its shares in Telepizza, the Spanish pizza delivery company, just over a year after the company’s troubled €550m IPO in April 2016.

Spain’s BBVA priced €500m of additional tier one paper with the lowest coupon of any southern European issuer this week, following its compatriots Banco de Sabadell and Santander in taking advantage of healthy appetite for the product.

Abengoa’s yieldco spinoff, Atlantica Yield, took a step further from its troubled Spanish major shareholder on Monday, having received its first double-B rating from Standard & Poor’s.

Emmanuel Macron’s election as French president last weekend was the catalyst for a flood of revved up euro deals this week, with issuers and investors aiming at the long end of the curve as the biggest known political risk in Europe this year passed with a market-friendly outcome. Craig McGlashan reports.

Spain’s Repsol brought the first ever green bond from an oil major to the market on Tuesday, leaving green investors to pick through the morals of financing a sector that environmentally responsible finance was created to help mitigate.

Inmobiliaria Colonial, the Spanish property company, successfully raised €253m on Thursday night in a 10% capital increase to finance new investments, capping a busy week for block trades.

Banco de Sabadell’s was more than six times oversubscribed for its first additional tier one (AT1) deal on Friday, allowing the Spanish bank to price the deal 50bp tighter than initial price talk.

Spanish banks have taken just over four months to shoot past the supply totals they managed in the whole of last year, after yet another impressive deal was priced this week. With the creation of a new senior asset class potentially just around the corner in Spain, 2017 could turn out to be a bumper year for the nation’s financial institutions.