UniCredit

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.

The few hybrid deals that have been printed in 2017 have seen overwhelming demand amid the current low rate environment. A €300m deal from German agriculture servicing company BayWa on Wednesday was no different, even if some of the bond’s features were more unusual.

Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank on Wednesday opted to go for a short maturity for the lowest cost of funding for its latest bond issue. A €800m three year deal achieved just that, pricing with barely any new issue premium.

French optician Alain Afflelou is considering a yield of about 4.5% for its first bond since suspending plans to float on the Paris bourse. Investors branded the figure “punchy”.

After three days without a deal, the euro corporate bond market reopened with nearly €2bn of new issuance from three different issuers. The auto finance lender, FCA Bank, issued a three year deal, French electrical equipment manufacturer, Legrand, sold six year bonds, while French toll road operator, Cofiroute offered a 10 year transaction.