Poland

Poland became the first European country to issue a Panda bond on Thursday, printing a landmark Rmb3bn ($451m) deal. The depreciating renminbi was not enough to put off foreign investors, while the yield pick-up over other sovereign bonds helped ensure a strong order book. Addison Gong reports.

The Republic of Poland will open books on Thursday on the first Panda bond from a CEEMEA issuer and is looking to print with a 3% handle, according to a banker at one of its leads.

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland has mandated Bank of China and HSBC as joint lead underwriters to work on the sovereign’s upcoming Panda bond.

Two block trades by UniCredit this week, totalling €1.08bn, offered further confirmation that the equity capital market is functioning well, and that there is ample demand for good European stocks, including from US long-only investors.

UniCredit’s new CEO, Jean-Pierre Mustier, has sent strong signals to the market this week that he will be determined about reshaping the bank, which by last week had lost 75% of its market value in the past year.

UniCredit used similar tactics on its accelerated bookbuild sale of 10% of Bank Pekao on Tuesday night to those it had used for Monday’s sale of FinecoBank — and achieved a similar result: multiple times oversubscription, led by one very large anchor order.

UniCredit has dominated the headlines again this week, but this time for a better reason. Italy’s largest bank has also been its biggest loser of shareholder value, its shares falling 75% since last summer, as investors have lost trust in the sector.

A day after selling 10% of its Italian online retail investment service Fineco Bank for €328m, UniCredit has this evening launched an accelerated bookbuild of 10% of Bank Pekao, the Polish bank of which it owns 50.3%.

Emerging market bankers said on Monday that they are optimistic that developing market credit will hold firm as Britain forges ahead into the “world of the unknown” after voting to leave the EU on June 23. But the verdict on primary markets was unanimous: closed for the foreseeable.

Emerging market bankers called Britain’s decision to leave the EU on Friday "madness" and in line with the broader global market, EM credit has lost all the gains it made last week.

Poland is looking to join the club of Panda bond issuers, having signed up Bank of China to lead its transaction. But the sovereign plans to swap the renminbi proceeds back into euros as it has little need for the Chinese currency.

PKO Bank Hipoteczny, Poland’s largest mortgage lender, has issued a well oversubscribed, tightly priced and broadly distributed covered bond, which sets an encouraging prelude for an expected inaugural euro benchmark deal later this year.