Spain

BBVA

The Iberian Peninsula was host to a duo of barnstorming sovereign benchmarks this week, but there was no consensus among bankers over whether they signified an appetite for sovereigns at the lower end of the European credit quality spectrum.

A trio of Spanish issuers launched the first covered bonds of the year from southern Europe this week but, with peripheral spreads widening sharply, conditions are not conducive to further supply.

Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm that handled Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, is set to deliver early next week a scheme for Abengoa to avoid bankruptcy. Bankers say the high yield market should cope, either way.

Portugal is limbering up for its first benchmark of the year in a week heavy with eurozone periphery sovereign issuance, including an auction where Italy’s three year yield nearly dipped below zero.

ISDA has released a list of participating bidders for the credit event auction on Thursday to settle Abengoa 2014 credit default swaps.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) pledged to tighten up the standards that govern its Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee, a welcome move at a time when the committee’s role is evolving and it is assuming greater importance as a quasi-legal authority.

Spain has opened its funding year with a deal in the upper echelons of record sovereign deal sizes and an enormous book for the third year running. but it's the quality of investor the sovereign attracted this time that was most notable, according to bankers.

Spain has mandated for its first deal of the year, but the sovereign has taken the rare step of bringing a syndication in the same week as it is holding auctions.

Abengoa Yield, the yieldco spun off by Abengoa, the troubled Spanish renewable energy company, has changed its name to Atlantica Yield, and appointed a new chief financial officer, in a bid to dissociate itself from its parent, which has three months left to avoid bankruptcy.

BBVA, BFCM and BPCE met with strong investor demand for euro senior unsecured deals on Monday, as peripheral and longer dated debt proved no deterrent to buyers.

Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, the Spanish construction company, is still waiting for the Spanish financial regulator to approve its securities note for its rights issue, approved by the board on December 17.