UniCredit

Coal is about the most basic commodity. It has become deeply unfashionable in recent years, tarred as the worst culprit in global warming. The charge may be true, but the accusations are so vehement partly because promoters of other hydrocarbons — oil, gas, biofuels — want to disguise their own responsibility.

This week the Schuldschein market completed what could be its second largest deal ever, for Aldi subsidiary Hofer, and also launched its first two green deals — in what looks like another impressive year for the market.

Saipem, the Italian oil and gas engineering group, failed to sell all of its €3.5bn rights issue to shareholders by last Friday, in an ominous sign for other commodities firms that may still need to raise fresh capital.

In a very low-key transaction, the Czech Republic’s Energetický a průmyslový Holding (EPH) will complete its €1.5bn loan refinancing in the coming days.

The SSA market has seen a steady stream of activity across the euro and dollar markets this week. The European Stability Mechanism priced the week’s biggest deal on Tuesday, printing €4bn in 10 and 40 year tenors. Meanwhile African Development Bank led the charge in dollars, preparing to print a $1bn no-grow in its first benchmark deal of the year.

The Middle East has provided the only source of CEEMEA supply so far this week. Bahrain bounced back to hog the spotlight, returning to tap $600m of bonds less than a week after an unexpected Standard & Poor’s downgrade led the issuer to cancel a previous $750m attempt. Meanwhile, yet another Latin America sovereign came to the euro market.

Yet another German car maker has completed a lap of the private debt market. Porsche AG closed order books for its €200m Schuldschein this week.

This week will see the Schuldschein market host its first two green deals, a new direction for the centuries-old private debt market.

The Russian loan market has brought its first dollar deal of the year with Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) signing a long-awaited $1bn pre-export finance facility. The deal is its first syndicated loan since January 2014 and exceeds the size of any Russian loan of 2015.

With the year not two months old, seven leading equity capital markets banks have got saddled with what is understood to be at least €50m each of Saipem shares, after the rump of its rights issue failed to sell.

Banca Popolare di Vicenza came a step closer to launching its listing and capital increase this week, as it announced the date of a shareholder meeting to approve the deal.

Helaba brought the biggest Pfandbrief since 2011 on Tuesday, pulling in €1.25bn with a long four year deal. It was the first ever euro benchmark covered bond issued with a zero percent coupon, but given the persistent low interest rate environment it is unlikely to be the last, with some bankers alarmed at the prospect of negative yielding covered bonds.