UniCredit

Mark Twain supposedly said: “I’m great at quitting smoking. I’ve done it a thousand times.” One could say much the same about UniCredit and new strategic plans, though this time, perhaps it’ll stub out the filthiest parts of its loan book for good.

UniCredit will not be one of the Basel IV ‘outliers’ that will have to substantially increase its capital levels when the new rules come in, according to chief executive Jean-Pierre Mustier, speaking at the launch of the bank’s new strategic plan on Tuesday morning.

UniCredit announced this evening a set of capital requirements given it by the European Central Bank. Tomorrow it will hold a capital markets day in London at which Jean-Pierre Mustier, who took over as its CEO in July, will announce his strategy, including towards the bank’s capital position.

Amundi’s shares closed at a record high on Monday, up 5.4%, after it announced it would use a €1.4bn rights issue and €600m of senior and subordinated debt to buy Pioneer Investments from UniCredit.

UniCredit turned to the equity-linked bond market on Thursday to dispose of its last 7.4% stake in Bank Pekao, after agreeing to sell 32.8% of the Polish lender to insurance company Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń and the Polish Development Fund, for Z10.6bn (€2.4bn).

Equity-linked bond bankers are looking forward to a lively year for issuance in Emea in 2017, as they believe market conditions will favour the product and a wide variety of issuers will find it useful.

Deutsche Bank’s Spanish subsidiary kept its commitment to issue around €2bn of Cédulas a year and on Wednesday launched a well-oversubscribed €1bn five year, even though the cost was much higher than the European Central Bank’s Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operation.

Banca Monte dei Paschi’s shares leapt 7% on Wednesday morning, on growing hopes that a way will be found for the Italian state to strengthen its balance sheet, enabling it to achieve a €5bn capital raising demanded by the European Central Bank and avoid a bail-in.

Schustermann & Borenstein, the German fashion retailer, priced a €260m bond on Thursday to fund its acquisition by private equity firm Permira.

The 'no' vote in Italy’s referendum on constitutional reform was met on Monday morning with a muted reaction in credit and equity markets but, with profound uncertainty overhanging the political situation and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s rescue plan, analysts are not optimistic about the performance of the Italian financial sector in the short term.

Catalent Pharma and Thomas Cook — a reverse Yankee issuer and a UK holidays operator — on Thursday released guidance for high yield deals amounting some €900m in a market that has been mute since November 15.

German brake systems manufacturer Knorr Bremse has returned to the euro bond market nearly 14 years after it last sold a new issue to investors.