LEADING AND SUPPORTING

“In recent months, our task has been to accompany Italian companies through a very difficult time, making it possible for them to always have access to liquidity,” said Alfredo Maria De Falco, head of UniCredit’s Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) for Italy, in an interview with L’Economia del Corriere.

In the first eight months of 2020, UniCredit’s CIB confirmed its leadership in Italy with syndicated transactions totalling €3.3 billion, worth about 20 per cent of the Italian market. In Europe, the team is firmly in the top three positions for the fifth consecutive year.

“We have tried to broaden the range of possibilities, from capital markets to guaranteed financing to direct equity investments, as happened with the Esselunga Group and, most recently, with Lombard Euro Group, which was our first patient capital investment, alongside Tikehau,” he explained.

“The market has moved in waves, first senior debt, then convertibles, and now hybrids. European operators are very active in this segment. In the past few days, we have placed hybrid bonds for Omv (€1.5 billion issue), Total (€1 billion) and Enel (€600 million),” he stressed.

Companies finance themselves to create resources to be used in the coming months or to strengthen their liquidity position, often taking advantage of interest rates that are far from the historical average or attracting investors with a strong ESG agenda.

“In this sector UniCredit is a global leader in sustainability-linked financing, with loans of around €4 billion,” concluded De Falco.

In recent months, UniCredit has worked on Snam’s first transition bond, an ESG loan to Terna, the first Schuldschein (a type of private placement) with sustainability targets ever issued in Italy, and in recent days the green bonds of Mediobanca and ERG, transactions that confirm strong interest in sustainability from investors.