UniCredit

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.

Spain and Cyprus attracted strong demand for their syndicated bonds on Tuesday, with the former receiving the largest ever order book for a public sector euro benchmark. Italy and Belgium will add to the eurozone sovereign supply on Wednesday after mandating leads for new 30 and 10 year trades, respectively.

Environmentally minded investors piled into green and sustainable corporate bond issues in Europe on Monday, with deals for Energias de Portugal, South Korean steel company Posco and National Grid garnering around €10.3bn of demand.

Italian construction giant Salini Impregilo offered to exchange its 3.75% notes, due in 2021, to new non-call life senior notes, maturing in seven years. The €250m deal is set to be completed by Friday this week with initial price thoughts of 3.875% — indicating that Salini may have lost favour among investors and will have to pay extra to extend maturities.

The European Financial Stability Facility took the spotlight in the euro public sector bond market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of a busy week. The European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Spain and Cyprus have all announced new deals.

Gradually over the past decade, Asian investors have become more and more important to European corporate private debt markets, to the point where they are now often indispensable. Asian borrowers have been slower to appear, but are now arriving. However, while these arrivals have largely benefited these markets, they have introduced a few complications.