UniCredit

The Joint Laender printed €1bn of 10 year paper on Tuesday, filling the book unusually quickly for a Laender deal. The deal was joined in the market by a European Union (EU) tap of an April 2031 line.

On Wednesday, Italian supermarket chain, Esselunga, became the first non-utility issuer to sell a benchmark corporate bond since Iliad’s €650m deal on October 5. The company’s debut deal saw one tranche priced at a lower yield than Italian government bonds.

Italian telecoms firm Wind called on the high yield market on Wednesday, as it planned to refinance most of its debt with a dual currency five tranche offering, deploying 20 bookrunners in the process.

The European Union (EU) is set to tap an April 2031 line on Wednesday, coming on the heels of KfW five year benchmark on Tuesday, that raised €3bn.

Hapag-Lloyd, the German container shipping company, has raised €352m to reduce its debt after its one-for-14 rights issue won a high take-up from its shareholders.

CMA CGM, the French container liner, priced its first bond issue on Tuesday after improving on its triple-C ratings. Investor demand was enough for the issuer to double the size of the deal.

All four investment grade benchmark corporate bond deals that priced last week were from utilities. On Tuesday, Italian multi-services utility, Iren, and Dutch grid operator, Stedin, took the count to six.

French shipping group CMA CGM will launch a sub-benchmark sized bond on Tuesday, a week after S&P Global upgraded the rating of its unsecured note issuance from CCC+ to B-, bringing it into line with Moody's B3 rating.

FIG bankers say that Germany’s Commerzbank is unlikely to remain a standalone entity forever. But a tie-up for the bank is firmly in the realm of fantasy M&A for now, writes David Rothnie.

Empark, Vallourec and Dufry met strong demand for their new high yield bonds this week as investors opened their deep pockets.

On Wednesday, A2A became the second Italian utility this week to sell a 10 year new issue. The company achieved the current benchmark low single digit new issue premium for its €300m deal.

On Tuesday, Iren, the electricity and gas distributor, announced a new benchmark green bond alongside a tender offer for some of its outstanding bonds.