companies in the utilities sector are
increasingly getting involved. Vattenfall has
a laboratory initiative that is looking to
create steel with no carbon impact.
Vattenfall’s green bond framework was
set up last April in accordance with ICMA’s
2018 Green Bond Principles and was
allocated a “dark green” shade by opinion
provider Cicero, its highest rating.
Vattenfall wants to drive the transition
towards a fossil-fuel-free society within one
generation and is aiming to bring its CO2
emissions to below 21m tonnes in 2020, the
company having emitted about 22m tonnes
in 2018.
“Our growth investments are to a large
extent renewable energy, such as wind
farms, but we are also investing in new
energy solutions such as e-mobility and
SMARTERûGRIDSûTOûENABLEûTHEûELECTRIlCATIONûOFû
society as a whole,” Gyllenhoff said.
Electricity transmission companies are
enhancing their presence in the Nordic
green debt sector as the region’s shift away
from fossil energy picks up momentum.
Norwegian state-owned Statnett
introduced its newly established green bond
framework to investors earlier in the weekwith a view to issuing benchmark green
bonds denominated in Norwegian kroner
and Swedish kronor, with tenors ranging
from three to eight years.
ING was green coordinator on Vattenfall’s
trade, and was bookrunner alongside Danske
Bank, ING, NatWest Markets and Societe Generale.POSITIVE YIELD DRAWS BUYERS TO
LUFTHANSA ONE-YEAR MTNAvoiding the recent turbulence in the public
space DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA took to the private
debt markets to raise €150m through an
MTN issue which followed a Schuldschein,
with the lure of the positive yield enough to
draw investors in.
Airlines in particular are expected to be
among the worst hit by the coronavirus,
with Lufthansa itself announcing on
Monday that it would reduce short to
MEDIUM
HAULûmIGHTSûBYûUPûTOûûWITHINûTHEû
coming weeks.
!NDûWITHûPUBLICûMARKETSûDIFlCULTûTOû
navigate, the German airline (Baa3/BBB)
recently tapped the MTN market for €150m
of one-year paper, issued at par, with a
coupon of 0.1%.An eye-catching positive yield on a short-
dated euro trade helped underpin demand
for the new transaction at a time when the
universe of negative yielding corporate
bonds has been increasing. Almost 33% of
euro investment-grade corporate bonds
were quoted at a negative yield on February
28, up from 25% at the end of January.
“The positive yield for such a short tenor,
investment-grade name and brand
recognition was clearly a driver behind
investor demand,” said a banker.
A 0.25% €500m September 2024 trade for
the issuer was quoted as low as 0.15% on
February 20 though it has since sold off and
was quoted at 0.633% last Monday, according
to Tradeweb. That bond, which was issued
in September, was the last time that the
borrower had accessed the public bond
market.
It is understood that Deutsche Bank, the
dealer of the MTN, saw an opportunity for a
deal after Lufthansa issued a €100m one-
year Schuldschein via BayernLB.
On why it was issuing now a spokesperson
at the airline said that the “transactions
COMPRISEûlNANCINGûINSTRUMENTSûTYPICALLYû
used by Lufthansa and serve general
corporate purposes”.
One such purpose could be the
RElNANCINGûOFûAûõMû3CHULDSCHEINûTHATûISû
due to mature in June.
Given the uncertainty around markets, a
second banker said that it made sense to
issue now.STERLING
OPTIVO PREPARES FOR SENIOR SECUREDHousing association OPTIVO has mandated
BNP Paribas and HSBC for a 15 to 20-year
£250m senior secured transaction.
The bond is expected to be rated A2 by
Moody’s, and £100m will be retained.
The housing provider has a portfolio of
over 45,000 homes across London, the South
East and the Midlands.NON-CORE CURRENCIES
BRISBANE AIRPORT PLANS LOCAL MTNsBRISBANE AIRPORT is holding investor meetings
in Asia and Australia, arranged by CBA,
MUFG and NAB, for a seven-year to 10.5-year
Australian dollar senior secured note
offering.
Brisbane Airport, which is rated Baa2/BBB
by Moody’s/S&P, previously issued A$350m
(US$230m) of senior secured 3.9% seven-year
MTNs in April 2018, priced 135bp wide of
asset swaps.32 International Financing Review March 7 2020ALL INVESTMENT-GRADE BONDS IN EUROS
BOOKRUNNERS: 1/1/2020 TO DATE
Managing No of Total Share
bank or group issues €(m) (%)Excluding ABS/MBS, equity-related debt.
Source: Refinitiv SDC code: N91 JP Morgan 54 22,899.64 8.4
2 BNP Paribas 60 19,863.90 7.3
3 Barclays 58 18,577.90 6.9
4 SG 48 17,989.69 6.6
5 Credit Agricole 55 17,253.16 6.4
6 HSBC 47 16,236.84 6.0
7 Deutsche Bank 49 14,286.37 5.3
8 UniCredit 49 13,030.41 4.8
9 Citigroup 29 10,628.50 3.9
10 BofA 31 10,472.55 3.9
Total 258 271,039.52ALL CORPORATE BONDS IN STERLING
BOOKRUNNERS: 1/1/2020 TO DATE
Managing No of Total Share
bank or group issues £(m) (%)Source: Refinitiv SDC code: N8a1 Barclays 9 1,166.77 16.8
2 JP Morgan 6 910.00 13.1
3 BNP Paribas 6 593.89 8.5
4 HSBC 5 505.12 7.3
5 NatWest Markets 5 480.21 6.9
6 Lloyds Bank 4 455.46 6.5
7 RBC 4 448.66 6.4
8 Citigroup 3 439.30 6.3
9 Deutsche Bank 2 297.89 4.3
10 Mizuho 2 208.52 3.0
Total 13 6,965.76ALL INTERNATIONAL STERLING BONDS
EXCLUDING SECURITISATIONS
BOOKRUNNERS: 1/1/2020 TO DATE
Managing No of Total Share
bank or group issues £(m) (%)Including preferreds. Excluding equity-related debt.
Source: Refinitiv SDC code: K05a1 Barclays 29 5,748.55 14.3
2 HSBC 23 4,221.18 10.5
3 NatWest Markets 23 4,133.20 10.3
4 RBC 18 4,048.97 10.1
5 JP Morgan 10 2,452.10 6.1
6 Deutsche Bank 12 2,334.09 5.8
7 Lloyds Bank 11 2,263.48 5.6
8 TD Securities 9 2,181.40 5.4
9 Citigroup 11 2,162.89 5.4
10 BNP Paribas 7 1,439.20 3.6
Total 58 40,220.66ALL SWISS FRANC BONDS INCLUDING
SECURITISATIONS
BOOKRUNNERS: 1/1/2020 TO DATE
Managing No of Total Share
bank or group issues SFr(m) (%)Including preferreds. Excluding equity-related debt.Source: Refinitiv1 Credit Suisse 34 4,295.738.6
2 Verband 9 2,077.6 18.7
3 UBS 22 2,074.4 18.7
4 ZKB 11 806.6 7.3
5 Deutsche Bank 6 802.6 7.2
6 Raiffeisen Schweiz 10 750.4 6.8
7 BNP Paribas 2 217.1 2.0
8 Commerzbank 1 92.5 0.8
Total 53 11,116.96 IFR Bonds 2323 p 25 - 53 .indd 32 06 / 03 / 2020 19 : 18 : 07