BBVA

Spain and Cyprus attracted strong demand for their syndicated bonds on Tuesday, with the former receiving the largest ever order book for a public sector euro benchmark. Italy and Belgium will add to the eurozone sovereign supply on Wednesday after mandating leads for new 30 and 10 year trades, respectively.

The European Financial Stability Facility took the spotlight in the euro public sector bond market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of a busy week. The European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Spain and Cyprus have all announced new deals.

BBVA founds itself alone in the euro FIG market on Friday as it launched a €1bn tier two bond on the back of €4bn of demand. The deal caps off a busy week for supply, in which investors have shown out-sized demand for the highest yielding transactions.

Green corporate bond investors had plenty to sink their teeth into on Thursday, with electric utlities E.On bringing three tranches and Red Electrica making its debut in the format.

DCM officials were encouraged to see investors piling into new non-preferred senior bank bonds on Tuesday, as BBVA, Crédit Agricole and Credit Suisse combined to reopen the market. Borrowers have been willing to offer extra spread to investors at the initial price thoughts stage.

European banks no longer really have to think about building up layers of additional tier one debt. All of the focus has shifted to managing and refreshing this capital layer, and taking full advantage of a ferocious hunt for yield. Tyler Davies reports

Covered bonds performed well in 2019, but yields finished in negative territory and spreads ended at their tightest for the year. The implication is that, despite higher than expected ECB covered bond purchases and a renewal of its ultra-cheap TLTRO facility, investors will struggle to match 2019’s returns in 2020, writes Bill Thornhill.

Spain’s Beachbox Hotelco has signed a €55m green project finance loan, amid increasing calls from some parts of the market for regulators and governments to do more to cover banks’ costs in sustainability lending.

Groupe BPCE and BNP Paribas issued green bonds this week, attracting strong levels of demand for such a late stage in the year.

Merlin Properties, the Spanish real estate investment trust, launched on Wednesday a €500m no-grow 15 year benchmark bond, rated Baa2/BBB, with a positive outlook from S&P Global.

Spain’s FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente and Deutsche Telekom raised euro bonds on Wednesday, in what corporate bond bankers reckoned was the last clear issuance window of the year.

Intesa Sanpaolo and BNP Paribas hurried to make use of strong market conditions this week, building blowout order books for a pair of new senior deals in socially responsible formats.