UniCredit

The Singapore-incorporated global energy company Puma Energy has bounced back after a planned bond issuance last year failed to materialise, raising $590m in the loan market. Sources say the company’s change of management and reorganisation brought a “sense of relief”.

Pandora, the Danish jewellery maker, has signed a €950m sustainability-linked loan and in the process become the latest company to repay, early, coronavirus pandemic crisis funding taken out last year.

Issuers piled into Europe’s high grade corporate market on Wednesday but investor responses were mixed when it came to the deals at the tightest spreads.

LBBW enjoyed the euro limelight on Tuesday morning as it sold the week’s first senior deal from a European borrower, pricing a €500m eight year deal that peaked at more than three times covered.

Europe’s high grade bond investors are set to be offered new bonds from both ends of the ratings spectrum this week, as A2 rated air traffic controller Nats (En Route) and fallen angel car parts company ZF Friedrichshafen planned deals.

Hochtief, the German construction company, has followed up its bond outing with a revolving credit facility. The deals see the company take on around €750m of debt in the run-up to its annual general meeting.

Rating: Aaa/AA/AAA

Europe’s corporate bond market hosted a debut sustainability-linked bond and two multi-part trades this week, despite overall issuance winding down as earnings season gets under way.

Aeroporti di Roma made its debut in the sustainability-linked bond market on Thursday, with a structure that allows for several shades of performance, rather than the simple flat rate 25bp coupon step-up usually used.

Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, and Clarion Housing, the UK housing association, became the latest companies to sign loans using risk-free rates instead of Libor, as more deals are signing that ditch the scandal-ridden benchmark from day one.

Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, has signed a €2.5bn sustainability-linked loan, becoming the first Spanish company to use risk-free rates as a benchmark instead of Libor.

The new boss of UniCredit is widely expected to use his deal-making skills to transform the Italian lender, but will he look to revitalise its corporate and investment bank, asks David Rothnie.