UniCredit

Agrana, a food producer headquartered in Vienna, is marketing a Schuldschein where its floating notes are some 20bp inside the fixed note offering. Two market participants said they had never seen this before.

Just two months after a dovish US Federal Reserve lured América Móvil to the dollar bond market for the first time in eight years, the Mexican telecoms giant was again able to make the most of benevolent central bank talk on Wednesday as it jumped on a rates rally in Europe for its first euro trade since 2016.

The rally set off European Central Bank president Mario Draghi's assertion on Tuesday that further quantitative easing was possible, if not probable, had reached a level by Wednesday that astonished bankers. Three investment grade companies took advantage that day with benchmark bond issues, while one brought a tap.

UniCredit made the unusual decision of adding a one year call option to a preferred senior bond on Tuesday, nodding towards the bond’s potential value as total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC). The Italian bank won strong support on a day when dovish central bank comments were fuelling a big rally in the value of risk assets.

FRANKFURT PRIVATE DEBT ROUNDTABLE The Schuldschein market has kept up its momentum across Europe and elsewhere, but two regions have been curiously quiet. Iberia and Italy have implied investment grade borrowers well suited to the market, yet only a few have been tempted to use it. Are there barriers to entry and how can they be overcome?

Europe’s private debt markets are progressing admirably. More and more companies are issuing, or at least aware of the possibility — and they have a varied choice of markets. Players in the Schuldschein and US PP markets are confident and looking ahead to new opportunities, as the products grow in geographical reach, asset class and technique. As Jon Hay reports, there’s just one snag — the credit cycle is nearing its end.

Flushed with years of popularity in Germany and its neighbouring countries, Schuldschein arrangers have begun to look across the globe for new borrowers to tempt to the market. This year has brought the first transaction from India, and many say Reliance Industries’ success may spur more non-European entities to target the Schuldschein investors. Silas Brown reports.

VIENNA PRIVATE DEBT ROUNDTABLE The Schuldschein market is widening its circle of issuers and investors. It is now a natural choice for Austrian companies wanting to complement bank funding, but not necessarily big enough to issue public bonds.

The Schuldschein market has become a hotbed of technological innovation over the past 12 months, with as many as 11 digital platforms cropping up, claiming to have solutions to the instrument’s age-old, if slightly charming, inefficiencies. Silas Brown looks into the secrets to a digital platform’s success.

The Euro private placement as an organised, visible, investment grade-like market has disappointed its founders. But despite unfavourable monetary policy, institutional corporate lending has taken hold. As Jon Hay discovers, the deals are there — but well camouflaged.

LONDON PRIVATE DEBT ROUNDTABLE The UK’s private debt market is one of the most vibrant in Europe. London is the most active centre in Europe for US private placement investing, and UK borrowers have longstanding links with that market.

The US private placement market has carved itself quite a following among borrowers in the UK and Europe, with its enticing offer of long dated debt at tight margins. But since Britain voted to leave the European Union, agents are playing on another of the market’s strengths — its resilience to external shocks. Silas Brown investigates.