Intesa Sanpaolo

Corrado Passera is the favoured candidate to become the next chief executive of UniCredit, but the bank’s international investors are on a collision course with its board over the appointment of a successor to Federico Ghizzoni, who stepped down last month.

Enav, the Italian air traffic control system company, began its privatisation IPO on Monday, with the publication of research. Meanwhile, plans are taking shape for the IPO of Avio, the Italian space propulsion firm.

The €1bn IPO and highly dilutive capital increase of Veneto Banca is thought likely by bankers involved to be bought in its entirety by Fondo Atlante, as happened to the similar €1.5bn deal for Banca Popolare di Vicenza at the beginning of May.

Eutelsat, the French satellite operator, managed to issue a €500m no-grow five year bond on Thursday, despite the ever-fraying nerves about Brexit — though it offered a sizeable new issue premium.

Veneto Banca’s IPO bookbuild will begin on June 8, but hopes of it achieving its flotation in Milan are dim. “At the bottom of the price range, there are cheaper Italian banks,” said one banker on the deal, encapsulating the problem.

Abu Dhabi's Mubadala has tightened the margin on its $1.75bn three year refinancing, despite the price on the original loan already being “eye-wateringly low”, according to one banker.

Veneto Banca’s IPO attempt has been set for the latter part of June, but whether it has any better success than Banca Popolare di Verona at finding institutional demand remains in doubt.

UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo both escaped having to deduct the Atlante fund’s rescue of Banca Popolare di Vicenza from their capital. But the firms took very different equity damage from the debut deal, despite each owning a €300m stake. Owen Sanderson reports.

Banking is a game with rules, and regulators set them. That’s why, when the chips are down, they can change them to make banks look better.

French motorways operator Autoroutes du Sud brought a €500m no-grow bond to the market on Wednesday, drawing in a €2.2bn order book.

Atlante could reach out to more potential investors after being forced to underwrite all of Banca Popolare di Vicenza’s recent IPO, but the future of larger banks remains subject to the success of structural reforms.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena is beyond the help of Fondo Atlante, according to an ECB official, but new reforms could help the bank tackle its mountain of non-performing loans.