UniCredit

Investors have embraced the bonds of smaller European financial institutions this year, as they search for higher returns in an environment where interest rates are expected to remain low for a long time.

The European Financial Stability Facility rounded off its 2019 funding programme on Tuesday, but some on-looking bankers remarked that the deal, though fully subscribed, did not reach the issuer's customary high levels of demand. Meanwhile, Erste Abwicklungsanstalt returned to the euro market for the first time since February 2018.

KfW has mandated banks for its first €STR transaction as it looks to become the third public sector borrower to sell a bond linked to the new euro risk-free rate.

Italian crossover credit Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione, a real estate company, has hired banks for a sub-benchmark bond issue and tender offer, as roadshow calendars remain packed with deals.

Two SSA borrowers are coming to the market for euro deals on Tuesday. The European Financial Stability Facility and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt will both print what are likely to be their final benchmarks of the year.

At its results presentation on Thursday, UniCredit's CEO Jean Pierre Mustier scotched rumours that it was planning to set up a new German holding company and revealed instead plans for a holding company in Italy, designed to make its organisational structure more efficient for regulatory capital and resolution purposes.

The European Union felt it paid little over its benchmark curve for a €150m medium term note (MTN) that will finance the last of three disbursements to Tunisia.

BBVA and DNB Bank were both looking to build towards their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in the euro market on Thursday, eschewing non-preferred senior issuance in favour of the cheaper preferred senior format.

UniCredit’s has chalked up its best quarterly numbers in a decade, its CEO said on Thursday, with the performance of the investment bank lifted by soaring trading revenues. The Italian lender claimed victory on its ‘Transform 2019’ plan, ahead of the launch of a new business strategy early next month.

UniCredit sold its entire stake in Mediobanca through a €784m block trade on Wednesday night, before announcing its third quarter results on Thursday morning.

Dufry, the world’s largest travel retailer, issued €750m of senior unsecured notes on Wednesday to buy back its outstanding €700m of 4.5% notes, due in 2023, and pay back a small slice of its revolver.

A flurry of new deals this week had issuers having to compete for investors’ attention. Bankers said that higher yielding deals were much easier to sell, with non-preferred senior bonds from Bankia and Lloyds Banking Group proving more popular than a tighter print from Belfius.