Raiffeisen Bank International AG

A pair of Austrian banks kept a quiet senior euro market ticking over earlier this week. Erste targeted price over size with a new senior deal, while Oberbank attracted a granular orderbook on its first visit to the non-preferred market.

The decline in international and debut Schuldschein issuance last year had a disproportionate impact on non-German bank arrangers. But this year’s bright start has given them a new lease of life.

Oberbank sold its first senior non-preferred bond on Tuesday. The issuer's investor work paid off as more than 70 accounts poured into the sub-benchmark deal, which was almost two times covered.

Erste Group Bank was first out of the blocks this week to tap the euro market for senior preferred paper, with the lack of competing supply allowing the bank to target 'pricing over size', according to one of the leads.

Austrian paper and packaging firm Mayr-Melnhof Karton, called MM Karton for short, has launched a Schuldscheine, with an initial target of €300m.

Oberbank is preparing to launch a sub-benchmark non-preferred senior deal into a quiet FIG market that has not seen a senior deal since Tuesday.

Huhtamaki, the Finnish food packaging company, has refinanced a €400m facility, with the borrower becoming the latest to add sustainability metrics to its main bank line as an EU ban on single-use plastics comes into force.

Raiffeisen Bank International’s clients are increasingly looking to achieve more sustainable, fairer and more transparent ways of doing business. In this context, RBI maintains a comprehensive dialogue with an ever-increasing pool of clients on sustainable finance, e.g. bonds, loans and Schuldscheine. We focus our attention not only on “green”, but also cover sustainability-linked instruments, a rapidly growing area in the sustainable finance universe.

Since 2018, Raiffeisen Bank International has issued several green bonds. Targeting private and institutional investors, the bonds support the growth of green financing at RBI’s headquarters and across its subsidiary banks in CEE, thereby facilitating a reduction of more than 60,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. This corresponds to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 13,000 cars or almost 7,000 households.

European green bond issuance has significantly outpaced that in other regions over the last four years and in 2020 the European Union is set to be responsible for more than 50% of global green bond issues (sources: S&P Ratings, Climate Bond Initiative).

BP, the oil major, was joined at the long end of the bond market on Tuesday by railway company Deutsche Bahn, as issuers take advantage of low spreads to stretch out their debt maturities.

CPI Property, the Frankfurt listed property owner, has signed a new €700m revolving credit facility, bumping up the size of its main bank line as lenders say liquidity is still a focus for corporates.