UniCredit

Russian Railways has told investors that it is focusing on an eight year tenor for its euro green bond, with pricing for the benchmark expected "as early as tomorrow." The deal will be the first international green bond from the country.

KfW picked banks on Tuesday to lead its largest ever green bond. The deal will come from its recently updated green framework, which includes funding for energy efficiency projects, in addition to the renewable energy sector in Germany.

Covered bonds issued on Tuesday by UniCredit Bank AG and Hypo Vorarlberg Bank (HVB) found good demand, mainly from bank investors. Despite their meagre and diminishing returns, the bonds offered a better spread compared to other regulated assets.

France’s Lagardère is set to price and allocate its €150m Schuldschein in one month, as borrowers look to get deals done before the bulk of European investors head off on summer holidays.

Austria’s Constantia Industries has launched a €75m multi-tenor Schuldschein. The industrial and commercial materials company will potentially stretch the maturity out to as long as 10 years.

UniCredit Bank AG (HVB) and Hypo Vorarlberg Bank AG are expected to open books on Tuesday for Pfandbriefe in the 15 and eight year tenors. The longer deal follows a series of other long-end trades and may be followed by more, as borrowers take advantage of remarkably strong market conditions to do their most difficult deals.

European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

UniCredit provided details of its intention to strengthen its balance sheet further on Thursday, as it produced a well-received set of earnings results.

France’s Lagardère has launched a Schuldschein deal, with the media company likely the only new name on screens before an expected deluge of trades from next week onwards.

UniCredit’s chief executive, Jean Pierre Mustier, moved fast this week to sell €1bn of stock in FinecoBank, the Italian bank’s online brokerage, after a decision to deconsolidate the unit. Many in the market see UniCredit's accelerating asset sales as an effort to boost its capital position before exploring M&A opportunities in 2020. Aidan Gregory reports.

NRW.Bank mandated banks on Wednesday for a 10 year euro bond, in what is the agency’s first benchmark since rules were changed to allow the bank to be dissolved by law only.

UniCredit surprised investors with its speed when it sold a €1bn block in FinecoBank on Tuesday — the same day it announced that it would seek to reduce its stake in the online brokerage.