UniCredit

UniCredit’s new chief executive Andrea Orcel has slimmed down the bank’s executive committee while recognising “frustration” and “confusion” around past decision making at the firm.

UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB, enjoyed a stunning investor reception for its negative yielding eight year Pfandbrief that was issued on Wednesday, thanks to the lack of supply this year, the small but rare premium on offer and the superb market conditions.

Suelzle Holding, a German steel maker, has signed a €140m revolving credit facility, as lenders say there are a handful of similar deals in the works for borrowers in the German speaking region.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market ignored a deeply red day in equity markets on Tuesday, and Volkswagen Leasing and Eurofins Scientific got a decent run at printing new debt.

The spread benefit of ESG-linked debt was on clear display in Europe’s corporate bond market this week. For the second time in days, investors were offered two similar transactions and paid significantly more for the ESG option, in this case a green bond from Red Eléctrica.

A smattering of European investment grade companies are lining up bond issues, as May continues to bring the turnaround in issuance levels that the market had been hoping for in the run-up to the UK bank holiday at the start of the month.

Symrise, a German flavour and fragrance producer, has signed a €500m debut sustainability-linked loan, with the company one of the few to disclose that any margin change due to hitting key performance indicators will be paid directly to charity.

Ceconomy, a German consumer electronics company, has signed a €1.06bn revolver linked to sustainability metrics, becoming the latest corporate to repay state support loans taken out during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Barclays' first senior euro deal for more than a year has allayed any fears over British risk as the borrower raised €2bn on Wednesday. The bank was joined in the senior market by another rare name, Kommunalkredit Austria.

The demand for sustainability-linked bonds was made clear on Thursday, as French minerals company Imerys’s deal commanded more than double the demand of Swedish property firm Sagax’s conventional trade, despite sharing big similarities.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond investors clamoured for spread this week, with low triple-B rated companies Aker BP and Holding d’Infrastructures de Transport (HIT) finding ample demand a day after Eni had sold hybrid debt.

Euronext, the Dutch-registered, Paris-headquartered stock exchanges group, brought a €1.8bn triple tranche bond issue on Thursday. Investors showed much larger appetite for the shortest maturity as inflation fears linger.