Ireland

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.

Ryanair completed a non-pre-emptive share placing on Thursday evening to strengthen its balance sheet to withstand the next phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and to take advantage of growth opportunities. Despite analysts not thinking the company needed extra capital, sources said the company's CEO Michael O'Leary made a compelling case to investors for the need to boost its balance sheet.

Ireland's Dalata Hotel Group was in the market with a 19.9% accelerated share placing on Tuesday, a move the company said would give it the firepower to take advantage of growth opportunities stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd (MIFL), the international asset management arm of Italy’s Mediolanum has appointed a new portfolio manager for its European equities team in Dublin.

Germany is calling for bids for state-owned Depfa Bank, the once prolific issuer of Irish and German covered bonds whose parent, Hypo Real Estate, was taken into public ownership as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. There is little chance, however, that the transaction could see the issuer return to the covered bond market.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, June 22. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.