BBVA

Agence Française de Développement printed a €1bn tap on Tuesday, while Fondo de Amortisacion del Deficit Electrico (FADE) landed €1.2bn at five years.

BBVA is the latest large European bank to have suffered a ratings downgrade during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Fitch having moved the issuer’s debt ratings down by a notch blaming a weaker operating environment in Mexico and Spain.

Gabriela Martínez de Aragón has joined CaixaBank as country manager for the UK.

China Huadian Corp priced a $500m bond on Monday, riding on the improvement in market sentiment to reopen the perpetual market for state-owned enterprises.

BBVA is expected to take advantage of recent changes to Pillar 2 requirements with a greater proportion of senior preferred issuance but it has a modest need for subordinated issuance. The Spanish national champion also plans to make use of its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (TLTRO) allotment from the ECB, which has been substantially increased.

Transition bonds were the hot idea of 2019 in green finance circles, appearing to offer a way to expand themed bonds to a much wider range of issuers. But the product has struggled to gain momentum. This week’s deal from Snam, the Italian gas grid company, confirmed that it has an audience, among both issuers and investors.

Rating: A/A/A-

Market participants expect European banks to take a large chunk of funding through the European Central Bank’s Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO III) programme, hitting covered bond supply levels. But issuance in other asset classes should remain unaffected as banks follow through with their funding plans.

Snam, the Italian gas network company, issued a €500m transition bond on Wednesday, which was three times oversubscribed and priced through its curve, suggesting that this controversial instrument is of interest to many investors.

There were no issues of competing supply on Tuesday as three eurozone sovereigns amassed big order books, buoyed by last week’s expansion of the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (Pepp).

Northern Powergrid, the UK energy distribution company, brought the longest sterling deal of the year so far with a 42 year trade on Tuesday, as syndicate bankers say that European investors are keen to see more long duration trades.

Spain and SNCF SA announced new euro benchmarks with 20 year maturities on Monday, following the European Investment Bank’s record-breaking effort in the tenor last Friday.