UniCredit

Private equity firms Bain Capital, Advent International and Clessidra have completed a huge sell-down of stock in Nexi, days after the Italian payments company unveiled plans for a €4.6bn merger with Sia, a close rival.

German electricity transmission firm Amprion launched Schuldschein and Namensschuldverschreibungen (NSV) notes on Wednesday, becoming the first borrower to launch a deal into the market this month. Bankers are gearing up for a busy fourth quarter.

Eni, the Italian oil and gas company, got blowout demand for its debut hybrid capital issue on Tuesday, as yield-hungry investors pumped about €14bn of orders into the dual tranche trade.

A trio of firsts are coming to the high grade corporate bond market this week, with a debut hybrid from Italian oil and gas firm Eni, a green first for French chemicals company Arkema and a postponed entry to the Eurobond market for Danish pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck.

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. That trend looks set to continue with three SRI deals already on screens.

The sustainability-linked debt structure, which has already spread from the loan market to corporate bonds, has made its first appearance in a convertible bond, with a deal by Dürr. CB specialists expect it will take root in that asset class too. Jon Hay and Aidan Gregory report.

Bank Nederlandse Gementeen kicked off a busy week for socially responsible bond issuance by public sector borrowers with a well-received 12 year sustainable bond, its longest ever deal in that format.

The City of Bremen was heavily undersubscribed as it came to the market with an eight year bond on Thursday, in what is the region’s second consecutive public deal that has failed to reach full subscription.

Hungarian oil and gas company Mol on Thursday raised a seven year bond in euros.

Engineering Group, an Italian IT services company, has returned to market after pulling a deal in June, for a second attempt at taking out the buyout bridge for its acquisition by Bain Capital and Neuberger Berman.

The UK’s InterContinental Hotels and Italian airport Società Esercizi Aeroportuali have mandated for bond issues, giving investors another attempt to pick up some potentially higher yielding debt than has been on offer recently.

Investment grade companies are filtering into the euro bond market in the run-up to the last quarter of the year, including Informa, the UK publishing and exhibition company, which wants to swap its private placements for public bonds.