UniCredit

The European Investment Bank put the strength of the appetite for duration in the euro market to the test on Thursday, becoming the first borrower of the year to attack the ultra long end of the curve.

UniCredit has become the first Italian bank to sell a non-preferred senior bond, clearing the path for further issuance out of the country.

The euro market is providing SSA borrowers with ever more impressive execution — the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) pulled off the largest supranational or agency deal of the year on Wednesday — but it faces a fresh challenge on Thursday: ultra long debt.

German retail group REWE International has become the first company to launch a Schuldschein at benchmark size this year, a sign that German blue chips may be active in the market this year.

On Wednesday French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France followed the path its compatriot Orange had taken on Tuesday by issuing a €1bn 12 year new issue. Meanwhile Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank was also in the market with its first benchmark floating rate note.

The euro market is providing borrowers with superb execution — KfW gathered its largest ever book for a 10 year on Tuesday — but investors are requiring healthy new issue concessions in order to commit.

Italian electricity supplier Enel sold its second green bond on Tuesday, repeating the timing of its first such offering in 2017, which it also sold in the second week of the year. The latest deal was the same size, but priced tighter and won a larger order book, despite printing with a longer maturity.

A $5.5bn senior secured loan to refinance China National Chemical Corp’s (ChemChina) outstanding debt has been launched into general syndication by 16 mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

Corporate bond market participants show little sign of caring about the end of European quantitative easing and the danger that presents to their market — which has arguably been the sector most affected by the policy. Nigel Owen reports.

Given the success of the corporate bond market's opening deals of the year, it was perhaps surprising that only one issuer came to market on Thursday, but Daimler achieved similar success to the RCI Banque Wednesday deal that it copied.

2017 saw some serious capital raising by European banks. Four European globally systemic banks, in four monster rights issues, raised more than €30bn — partly to deal with non-performing loans and partly to reclaim their places in global investment banking and capital markets. Even banks that did not turn to the equity markets sought to conserve capital — but is 2018 the year when belts will start to be loosened again? Owen Sanderson reports.

UniCredit has hired a senior Crédit Agricole banker as head of markets sales.