Spain

Banco Santander hit screens this week to sell its first green bond. The deal attracted orders more than five times its €1bn size.

Rating: A2/A+/A-

Banco BPM and Abanca made use of favourable issuance conditions this week to beef up their capital buffers. The Italian lender priced the 10 year non-call five deal at a 4.25% coupon and the Spanish issuer priced its 10.5 year non-call 5.5 year bond at 4.625%.

Lecta has reached an ‘in-principle agreement’ with its creditors for a recapitalisation, which will cut the principal of its €600m senior secured notes by €380m-€400m in a debt-for-equity swap. The Barcelona-based paper company’s proposed recapitalisation qualifies as a distressed exchange, said Moody’s, and it slashed Lecta’s rating from Caa1 to Caa3.

Abanca Corporación Bancaria returned to the euro bond market on Thursday for its second tier two of the year. The Spanish lender was able to tighten pricing for its €300m deal by 50bp, helped by an order book that was nearly four times subscribed.

Instituto de Crédito Oficial has selected its new head of capital markets, to replace Rodrigo Robledo, who left earlier this month, GlobalCapital can reveal.

BBVA launched a senior non-preferred bond in the euro market this week as activity slowed after a busy period for new FIG issuance. The €1bn trade attracted orders of €1.8bn and gave investors a small new issue premium, according to a syndicate banker.

Liberbank’s inaugural covered bond issued on Wednesday showed that investors are still hungry for paper that offers a positive yield and good relative value. The Spanish deal drew more than twice as much demand as Skipton Building Society’s competing negative yielding transaction, which was the third UK covered bond issued this week.

Wells Fargo hasn't wasted time in the bond market this week. It launched a euro senior bond on Wednesday, a day after raising sterling debt. Concurrently, Spanish lender Kutxabank was marketing a senior non-preferred bond in euros, its debut in the format.

CaixaBank launched a non-preferred senior bond linked to social causes on Tuesday, while Raiffeisen Bank International launched a green preferred senior bond. Both deals were heavily oversubscribed on a day that one banker described as 'ridiculously busy'.

Zero-E, the Spanish renewable energy firm, is targeting October to launch its IPO and is hoping that fair markets and growing demand for sustainable assets will propel it to success.

Banco Sabadell and ASB Finance launched senior bonds in the euro market on Monday, with the former hitting the ‘sweet spot’ of investor appetite and the latter struggling to achieve the same level of demand as its Kiwi peer ANZ New Zealand had last week.