Ireland

Smurfit Kappa, the Irish paper and cardboard packaging company, has signed its first sustainability-linked loan for €1.35bn, at the same time as setting new targets to reduce its carbon footprint and water use and employ more women.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank could take advantage of a quiet backdrop in the euro FIG market to launch the first deal from its green bond framework.

Public sector borrowers soaked up huge demand in the euro market on Tuesday including the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, which printed its biggest ever 100 year bond despite offering a yield of less than 1%.

Public sector borrowers wasted no time in getting back to business in the euro market in 2021 with one live deal and four mandates all hitting screens on Monday as issuers look to take advantage of an almost full trading week and a supportive market to make a dent in their brand new funding programmes.

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish wind farms fund managed by Greencoat Capital, launched a €100m equity capital raise on Thursday to free-up funds for acquisitions.

Smurfit Kappa, the Irish packaging company, priced a €660m capital raise on Thursday night, to allow it to take advantage of market opportunities during the Covid-19 recovery, as well as give it the firepower to withstand any downturns.

Permanent TSB has picked banks to arrange the sale of a new additional tier one (AT1) from its holding company, a deal that could be used to replace the Irish lender's outstanding opco bond.

The European Central Bank said this week that it thought a stronger role for countercyclical capital buffers would be key in making sure that banks use their available resources to boost lending in times of crisis.

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd (MIFL), the international asset management arm of Italy’s Mediolanum, has extended its hiring streak in Dublin, with the addition of a new senior fund manager.

Ireland won kudos for the swift economic recovery that followed the sovereign debt crisis, but with a considerable portion of residential mortgage loans overdue or restructured, its housing market was in a terrible state even before the impact of Covid lockdowns, let alone the peril a disorderly Brexit may bring.

AIB Group's new euro tier two capital issue, its first green bond, was comfortably subscribed on Wednesday, lifting confidence in the bank debt market after a difficult start to the week.

Irish insulation firm Kingspan has raised €750m-equivalent in US private placements, in its first green issue in the market.