UniCredit

Following a non-deal roadshow in December, Italian electricity and gas distributor Enel sold investors a €1.25bn seven year deal on Monday as it made its debut in the green bond market.

Four covered bonds issuers raised almost €6bn between them at the long end of the curve this week, suggesting borrowers are prioritising tougher, longer duration deals. And while conditions permit some are issuing in the largest size possible.

Loan facilities backing Mid Europa Partners’ acquisition of Romanian retail chain Profi Rom Food will go into general syndication this month, with a fifth bank joining the bookrunners and tranche prices having been indicated to ‘early bird’ lenders.

Syndication of Elysium Healthcare’s reduced £133m loan has run over into 2017 at investors’ requests, according to a banker on the deal, as the European leveraged loan market returns with expectations of a healthy New Year pipeline.

The Z5.14bn (€1.16bn) of loans for the leveraged buy-out of Allegro, the Polish online marketplace, have been allocated, with the leads choosing zloty rather than senior or junior euro bonds for the second lien piece.

Amundi has hired Dominique Carrel-Billiard as deputy director to the general management, a role in which he will be responsible for co-ordinating the firm's merger with Pioneer Investments.

UniCredit’s recent privately placed additional tier one outperformed the FIG secondary market on Monday, as analysts eyed a positive year for the asset class in 2017.

UniCredit privately bagged an extra €500m of additional tier one capital this week, ahead of an ambitious plan to bulk up its common equity and clean up its balance sheet.

While UniCredit’s CEO has rallied his troops round a simple vision that should be easy to execute, the success of the corporate and investment bank will come down to greater collaboration across countries and divisions, writes David Rothnie.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi signed a $2bn three year loan on Tuesday, cementing the bank group for its $175bn merger with First Gulf Bank, though some key European banks turned down a role on the deal.

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, equity capital markets are demonstrating that the first quarter of 2017 is likely to be busy, with two significant rights issues announced in the past few days.

UniCredit's €13bn rights issue, which won rousing applause from investors on Tuesday when the share price rose 16% on its announcement, will be one of the centrepieces of what is likely to be a busier year for financial institutions ECM in 2017.