UniCredit

Romanian telecoms giant Digi issued an €800m bond this week, offering investors exposure to risky but fast-growing eastern European economies. Digi is joining the long list of companies taking advantage of exceptionally favourable refinancing conditions in European high yield.

A pair of investment grade issuers made rare appearances in niche currency bond markets this week. Deutsche Telekom returned to the Swiss franc market after a 10 year absence, while Hitachi Capital UK made its debut in rand.

Romania sold €1.4bn 2% 2032s and €1.6bn 3.375% 2050s on Tuesday, managing to get away half of the country’s €6bn funding target for 2020 in one swoop.

Novolipetsk Steel, one of Russia’s largest steel producers, has amended an existing loan to include sustainability-linked pricing. The deal is the latest in a string of green financings in the country.

FCA Bank launched a €750m two year bond on Tuesday that was increased to €850m and three times subscribed, as syndicate desks prepared for a lacklustre few weeks in the corporate primary market.

Arrangers are confident that a wave of international issuers will enter the Schuldschein market soon, with German borrowers having kick-started proceedings at the beginning of the new year.

Two CEEMEA sovereigns are taking the plunge this week — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a triple tranche dollar benchmark and Romania with a dual tranche euro bond.

Rating: Aa1/AA/AA

A triple-A rated supranational and two sovereigns from the eurozone periphery took the opportunity to lock in low rates at the long end this week, amid strong market conditions. SSA bankers expect more supply to follow at this part of the curve over the coming weeks, including from France and potentially Greece.

Italian banks took over the financial institutions bond market this week, enjoying a much lower cost of funding and capital than they have been accustomed to in recent years. The sector will look to make good use of favourable issuance windows in 2020, as it moves inch by inch towards a more positive outlook.

The European socially responsible investment corporate bond market has made a rampant start this year, with issuance in the first two weeks already more than 10% of the total issued by companies in European currencies in 2019.

Eni, the Italian oil and gas company, raised €1bn with a bond issue on Thursday, while Quadient, the unrated French postal systems company formerly known as Neopost, continued the run of more esoteric corporate bond issuance.