UniCredit

Austria’s Verbund has joined the ESG-linked revolving credit facility fray, with the electricity company signing what leads say is the first such deal in the country.

Russian Copper Co (RCC) has closed a $250m five year credit facility, marking the second refinancing that RCC has secured this year. The tight margin sparked a sliver of optimism in the market.

Rising interest rates in the US have created a roaring market for convertible bonds. Europe’s barren market has been put to shame — it risks being the driest year for two decades. Going into 2019, Europe is likely to remain in the shade of the US, but there are hopes of an issuance rebound — that is if interest rates ever start to rise. Aidan Gregory reports.

Capital instruments issued by financial institutions under previous regulatory regimes was a topic of contention in several instances this year. With regulators set to lay down further positions, legacy capital will remain on the agenda in 2019.

Caius Capital and UniCredit have settled a dispute over a hybrid capital instrument issued by the latter. Caius will pay the bank an undisclosed sum, after UniCredit sought around €90m of compensation for damages back in August.

Chemical and consumer goods firm Henkel has signed a €1.5bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, with leads claiming the deal is the first of its kind in Germany.

European borrowers that flit between public and private debt have been choosing the Schuldschein market because of its comparatively tight pricing in the last few months but this week Freenet, the German telcoms firm, sweetened the terms it was offering investors.

The first green bond from a Slovenian borrower came to market this week. SID Bank will use the proceeds for green mortgages and financing low carbon aircraft.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV sold its first senior corporate bonds of 2018 on Monday after it attracted €3.9bn of demand for a pair of €500m notes with five year and 10 year tenors.

Borealis, the Austrian petrochemicals maker, sold its largest corporate bond tranche on Wednesday. The deal came two days after Austrian oil and gas company OMV, which owns more than a third of Borealis, had issued its own dual tranche deal.

UniCredit found a single investor willing to buy $3bn of its non-preferred senior notes at a coupon rate of 7.83% this week, as the bank pulled out all the stops in an effort to comply with its interim target for total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC).

The Bank of Italy has said that it is concerned that the introduction of a new minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) could prove troublesome for the business operations of Italian banks, given their limited access to international bond markets.