UniCredit

The formal separation of FinecoBank, the Italian online brokerage, from UniCredit has begun with Italy’s biggest bank selling almost half stake to institutional investors via an equity block trade – a strategy UniCredit has used numerous times in the past to shed non-core assets under its CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier.

The City of Hanover is returning to the Schuldschein market with a dual tranche, long dated deal, around a year after it became the first city to issue a green Schuldschein.

FinecoBank may look to boost its leverage ratio with a €200m issuance of additional tier one securities in the coming months, as part of plans for the entity to operate independently from the UniCredit group.

Allegro, the Polish e-commerce platform, is raising Z2bn (€470m) in a dividend recapitalisation, according to bankers. The deal, one of the biggest CEE loans in this year’s pipeline, is being led by three local and international lenders, although some market participants said the Polish banks would be capable of providing all the money.

Groupe PSA, the French car maker, has sold more than €500m of Schuldscheine, as a flurry of French firms find fortune in the market.

Goldman Sachs has hired Sushil Krishan, a UniCredit banker, for its team covering equity derivatives solutions, GlobalCapital understands.

Switzerland’s Coca-Cola HBC has amended and extended its revolving facility, with the soft drink bottler supersizing its loan to €800m and including a sustainability element.

Danish agricultural company Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab (DLG) entered the Schuldschein market on Monday, in search of at least €100m.

Despite the very attractive conditions in Europe's corporate bond market in recent weeks, some less regular issuers have missed out on them because they were scared off by the rough markets at the beginning of the year.

Auchan, the French supermarket chain, issued its second bond of the year on Tuesday, but the first since Standard & Poor's downgraded it in March to BBB-, leaving it on a negative outlook, after a weaker than expected trading performance in 2018.

Nexi, the Italian payments company, has fallen by almost 8% on its first day of trading after its Milan IPO last week. High volume selling at the beginning of the day has hurt the stock.

UniCredit has settled with US authorities and agreed to pay about $1.3bn for breaking US sanctions, but the Italian bank said this amount was fully covered by provisions.