Spain

Cracks started to appear in demand for long-dated rates products this week, even as riskier credit markets went gung-ho in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. Now Spain could be set to test how bad the damage has been, as it is rumoured to be readying a 30 year syndication for next week. Burhan Kahdbai, Lewis McLellan and Bill Thornhill report.

GlobalCapital understands that Spain has appointed a new head of funding and debt management to take over from Pablo de Ramón-Laca, who has been promoted.

Investors embraced a rare offering of non-preferred senior notes from Bankinter this week, with the Spanish issuer making its debut in the green bond market.

Banco Santander included a small premium in the pricing for its latest non-preferred senior bond this week, as the bank looked ahead to a busy year for issuance in the asset class.

Romanian telecoms giant Digi issued an €800m bond this week, offering investors exposure to risky but fast-growing eastern European economies. Digi is joining the long list of companies taking advantage of exceptionally favourable refinancing conditions in European high yield.

Zero-E the company that holds the wind, solar and thermal assets of Actividades de Construcción y Servicios has found a private buyer for its Spanish renewables assets, making an IPO unlikely.

While every eurozone country that sold a new syndicated bond this year has received strong demand, Spain outshone them all this week by taking the biggest ever order book in the bloc.

Rating: Baa1/A/A-

Ibercaja Banco was said to have steered a new tier two bond through fair value on Thursday, when the Spanish lender also announced the results of a tender for some of its existing capital securities.

Spain and Cyprus attracted strong demand for their syndicated bonds on Tuesday, with the former receiving the largest ever order book for a public sector euro benchmark. Italy and Belgium will add to the eurozone sovereign supply on Wednesday after mandating leads for new 30 and 10 year trades, respectively.

The European Financial Stability Facility took the spotlight in the euro public sector bond market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of a busy week. The European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Spain and Cyprus have all announced new deals.

BBVA founds itself alone in the euro FIG market on Friday as it launched a €1bn tier two bond on the back of €4bn of demand. The deal caps off a busy week for supply, in which investors have shown out-sized demand for the highest yielding transactions.