UniCredit

The corporate bond market started the week slowly with a pair of well rated German corporates selling two year floating rate notes on Monday. Both had just a sole lead manager.

Italy’s Atlantia has refinanced an acquisition bridge facility with a €1.75bn five year term loan that was priced well below where the company sold 10 year bonds this time last year.

A German sub-sovereign astonished the SSA market this week, selling a 50 year benchmark to show that, despite the expectations of rising rates in euros, some investors at least are still happy to put money into assets at the ultra-long end. Lewis McLellan reports.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia has launched its first ever 50 year benchmark, coming to market just as Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten landed at the short end.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia is set to bring its longest ever euro benchmark, as public sector borrowers line up trades across the currency’s curve.

European banks remain divided on whether to make their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) public, as the Single Resolution Board presses on with informing financial institutions of their first sets of binding targets.

Two German issuers sold corporate bonds on Tuesday and on Thursday, mobile phone operator O2 Telefónica Deutschland made it a German treble the following day.

Two German issuers sold corporate bonds on Tuesday and, after a day many Germans may want to forget on Wednesday, mobile phone operator O2 Telefónica Deutschland made it a German treble the following day.

Italian tyre company Pirelli has launched a Schuldschein after a six year absence from the market. This is a clear illustration, Schuldschein market participants said, of the resilience of the product, versus the shakier backdrop of public bonds.

Holders of a highly scrutinised UniCredit capital instrument hold a very small proportion of the bank’s equity, according to a source familiar with the matter. This could mean they are more likely to follow the recommendation of activist investor Caius Capital and push for the bank to exchange the notes.

The European leveraged loan market is starting to look a lot like it did in May, with a table full of multi-billion deals and bankers concerned about how much this spike in issuance could play into investors’ hands.

Spanish electricity utility Iberdrola has been one of the leading corporate issuers of green bonds and, on Thursday, it took its total green issuance to more than €7bn with its latest offering.