UniCredit

UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB, did well to issue a €750m seven year Pfandbrief on Tuesday, but with Italian headline risk flaring up again, it may have paid slightly over the odds.

Russian giant Gazprom and Ukrainian oil and gas firm Naftogaz, who have been locking horns in court, both chose Tuesday to release price guidance for new Eurobonds. The Gazprom deal will be the first public international bond from a Russian issuer since the US sanctions that shook the market in April. The Naftogaz bond is its first since 2009.

CEZ, a Czech utility company, came to market for four year euros on Tuesday, returning to the currency for its largest deal since 2013.

UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB, has announced plans to issue a seven year euro benchmark Pfandbrief, its first covered bond in over a year. At the same time Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) plans to issue a dollar benchmark three year Pfandbrief.

UniCredit said in its third quarter results on Thursday that it would move to a model in which all of its legal entities were self-funding, gradually minimising its intra-group exposure.

UniCredit has moved its target date for issuing instruments to meet its total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirement from the end of this year to the end of March next year. Meanwhile, chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier is set to invest in the bank’s equity and additional tier one (AT1) notes.

The European Financial Stability Facility finished off its 2018 issuance this week with what was likely the last jumbo euro benchmark of the year. The deal was solid, but SSA bankers warned the euro market feels “tired”.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia rounded out the week’s euro issuance with an oversubscribed 10 year euro deal that was priced 1bp inside guidance.

Inline warrants are growing in popularity as a means of generating returns when volatility is low.

The euro high yield market was giving signs that investor discrimination is back this week, as borrowers IDG and Victoria respectively marketed and postponed new issue bond deals.

There is increasing confidence among market participants that the European Central Bank will renew its policy of providing banks with cheap financing, given the arrival of tougher issuance conditions and more stringent liquidity requirements.

Qatar may still be under a blockade set by its Gulf neighbours, but bankers are optimistic about its borrowers' prospects in the loan market just as Qatar National Bank (QNB) returns for its second deal this year, writes Mariam Meskin.