UniCredit

Volumes in other syndicated loan markets may be down, but bankers in the Schuldschein market have rather more to crow about. Derided though it may be for being antique and parochial, it has nonetheless managed to attract an impressive number of debut entrants this year and is set to break the record volumes of 2017.

Österreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB), Austria’s export credit agency, will go on roadshow next week to present its recently established sustainability bond framework to European investors. An inaugural bond in the format is expected to follow.

Ukrainian grain and sunflower producer Kernel is set to amend and extend an existing syndicated loan, according to bankers familiar with the deal. The transaction marks one of the few intermittent spots of activity in the Ukrainian loan market.

Five new corporate bond issues including a €3bn issue from AT&T hit the market on Wednesday, after Danaher had completed its €6.25bn deal on Tuesday, leaving room for more companies to borrow.

A new flurry of investment grade corporate bond issuers jumped into the market on Wednesday morning, after Danaher priced its €6.25bn five-tranche Reverse Yankee note. Getting that deal out of the way gave other corporate borrowers room to bring bonds of their own — and plenty are expected to in the run-up toe the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement on September 12.

A transparent pricing approach was integral to the success on Tuesday of UniCredit AG’s (HVB) five year Pfandbrief, which was launched with a deeply negative yield.

Russian companies are showing more interest in euro-denominated loans, as funding in the currency becomes cheaper and as US sanctions complicate borrowers’ access to dollars. Siberian Anthracite is expected to close a loan refinancing with a new euro tranche this week, and at least two Russian borrowers are in preliminary discussions with international lenders.

Two near-investment grade industrials made a splash in the high yield bond market on Monday, with both Smurfit Kappa and Thyssenkrupp getting their order books oversubscribed multiple times.

Three new investment grade corporate bonds appeared in Europe on Friday, a slower pace than the frenetic one of Tuesday and Wednesday, but still adding €1.6bn to the already huge total of €15.5bn in the middle three days of this week.

Issuance is starting to resume after the summer break; however, this week a booming public market drew away investor and issuer attention from MTNs. Despite this, a range of established SSA, FIG and corporate borrowers have slipped in, with deals across core, niche and EM currencies.

European and US banks are facing pressure to become more diverse, for reasons of business and ethics. One senior investment banker at UniCredit, which has implemented a far-reaching initiative in the area, said that the logic is clear.

After two huge days of corporate bond issuance, Thursday was much quieter, with issues only from Vier Gas Transport and SBB Norden — not because the market was worse, but just because most of the issuers that wanted to come this week had crowded into the first two days.