Spain

Spanish civil engineering group ACS sold the first senior green bond by a corporate issuer for more than a month on Thursday, following a European roadshow earlier in the week. Green bonds are often said to offer a pricing benefit to issuers, but the company found it still had to pay a significant new issue premium.

The investment grade corporate euro bond market had shown a steady return to strength after Easter, but Thursday's five-deal spree tested its resolve . The market last saw that many deals on March 15 – a day described by one syndicate banker as a repricing point.

Volkswagen Financial Services had been conspicuous by its absence in the euro corporate bond market in the first quarter of 2018. Having been the largest corporate issuer by volume in 2017, the company had used other markets so far this year before selling a new triple tranche deal.

Spain’s Ibercaja Banco sold an additional tier one (AT1) bond with a 7% coupon on Tuesday, making it the highest yielding bank capital instrument in the euro market.

Issue rating: Baa3/BBB-/BBB

Spanish utility Iberdrola had significant success with its debut green hybrid bond in November when it received €3.2bn of orders. However, its second such bond failed to tighten from initial price thoughts when it was issued this week.

Two new SRI corporate bonds were priced on Monday, but with very different results. Iberdrola’s green hybrid bond failed to tighten from initial price thoughts, while Danone’s debut social bond had to pay just 2bp of premium.

Spanish telecoms company Telefonica announced the sale of new hybrid issues this week while also tendering for several of its outstanding hybrids. After more than a month since the last benchmark euro hybrid issue, investors contributed to an order book exceeding €4.5bn.

Spanish telecoms company Telefonica has announced the sale of its latest hybrid new issues while also tendering for several of its outstanding hybrids. After over a month since the last benchmark euro hybrid issue, investors contributed to a large order book.

Private equity firm CVC and local investor Alba are funding their €3.8bn acquisition of 201m shares in Gas Natural, the energy group, with a €1.9bn loan, which is set to become one of the largest Spanish financial deals of the year.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Ignacio Blasco, who was a leveraged finance banker at Société Générale for 12 years, has joined investment bank Houlihan Lokey after a short spell in direct lending.