UniCredit

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank took a plunge into the euro senior market on Thursday, overcoming an uncertain backdrop to print a deal that leads claimed could transform its future investor base.

Trading in Saipem, the Italian oil and gas engineering company, had to be suspended on Monday, the first day of the firm’s €3.5bn rights issue, due to heightened volatility in the stock.

UniCredit has offered to buy back up to €1.8bn of subordinated bonds mainly held by retail investors for the third time this year, as it looks to clean up its capital structure.

Emerging market bankers are saying that greater scrutiny may now need to be paid to the ratings calendar when printing bonds after Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Poland on Friday prompted one of the worst sell-offs of an EM new issue in recent memory.

Sovereign, supranational and agency borrowers in the eurozone could receive an injection of monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank in March — boding well for a series of issuers lining up deals in euros.

The economies of Italy and China do not appear to have much in common. Italy’s government would welcome a GDP growth rate of 1%, while China expands at less than 7% and investors take flight. One is a sclerotic, decaying Western country, the other is a dynamic Asian tiger. Such is the conventional wisdom.

As two senior Loan Market Association members leave the loan market, one will relinquish his role at the LMA while the other will stay on.

The State of Baden-Wüerttemberg and NRW.Bank priced deals in euros on Wednesday thus avoiding a clash with Thursday's European Central Bank meeting.

ChemChina is in the early bird stage of syndication for its KraussMaffei acquisition loan and is targeting relationship banks, according to a banker familiar with the deal. Commitments are due around the end of the month.

While markets have been badly affected by a mixture of worrying economic data from China, falling commodity prices and a continued slump in many emerging markets, the SSA market looks solid.

The State of Baden-Württemberg announced on Tuesday its intention to print a 10 year euro benchmark in a week in which investors await a decision on Thursday from the European Central Bank regarding interest rates.

The European Investment Bank and the Federal State of Berlin announced on Monday their intention to print in euros in a week in which the European Central Bank is expected to make a decision regarding interest rates.