A series of favourable conditions of the capital market in Europe has led to a strong wave di refinancing e new operations by Italian high-yield and leveraged issuers, supported by strong demand.
You can read it inside the Fitch Ratings Annual Report on market and fundamental credit trends in the Italian high yield bond and leveraged finance markets. The report presents trends in yields, issuance, sector composition and fundamental credit metrics for Italian issuers and instruments, based on data from the first half of 2024.
Favorable market conditions since 2023 have led to a strong demand by bond investors for speculative-grade debt, supported by significantcapital inflows in high-yield funds and the formation of CLO (Collateralised loan obligation, ed), says the Fitch report. “This factor, combined with stable credit quality for Italian issuers, has led to a strong wave of refinancing and some new deals in the country over the last 12-18 months.”
The domestic champions with “BB” ratings have refinanced the next staggered maturities, while the LBO (Leveraged buyout) names ed) of category “B” have refinanced their capital structures, securing better conditions to finance expansion.
"We are looking with interest at Italian high yield bond issues. Italy has long been the main issuer of high yield securities and Italian issuers are often companies that represent excellence in their reference sectors" he told Sun 24 Hours Alberto Gesualdo is responsible for the liquid credit fund strategies at Ver Capita. In addition, for the same issuer quality they offer more attractive returns than those of countries such as France and Germany”.
Investors, Fitch continues, have also shown a constructive approach towards the dividend recapitalizations, debt issuance subordinate and transformative epochal agreements. In particular Telecom Italy divested its fixed-line network to Optics Bidco through a complex liability management exercise. This helped eliminate the Italian yield premiums seen in the past, the report said.
