Covered Bonds

The primary capital markets had a difficult end to last week as issuers found it increasingly challenging to execute deals. Although stable in most markets, the average concessions paid in the corporate bond market edged upwards and continued to climb in the FIG market.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s has increased the size of its covered bond programme after the Reserve Bank of Australia opted to end its Term Funding Facility, suggesting that Australian banks could be on the verge of increasing their public bond market funding.

Covered bond and SSA research analysts at Société Générale are set to leave the bank for other firms later this year.

Note holders of Depfa ACS bonds can expect to be paid handsomely for their holdings, provided they meet Monday’s registration deadline to agree to the new purchase scheme. But although the terms look attractive, it is far from clear that a successful outcome will be achieved.

Covered bond supply is likely to remain anaemic over the second half of this year, with many analysts sharply downgrading their forecasts. As cheap central bank financing is expected to remain in place well into next year and deposits will probably remain high, an improvement in supply may be slow in coming.

A sharp and mysterious drop in US Treasury yields blindsided investors this week, which swiftly fed through to European markets. The moves came perilously close to wreaking havoc in primary markets and issuers in many asset classes are thinking twice before pressing ahead with issuance, write Richard Metcalf, Lewis McLellan, Bill Thornhill, Mike Turner and Oliver West.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank took the unusual decision of stretching execution over two days for its fixed rate sterling Pfandbrief, the first to be issued this year. The measured approach paid off with the issuer managing to tighten the spread by 3bp and achieve a larger than expected size.

DZ Hyp pulled in a solid order book for its €750m no-grow Pfandbrief that was almost positive yielding. Demand for Credit Mutuel CIC’s more negative yielding seven year was much slower to grow and smaller, making execution less certain.

DZ Hyp plans to issue a €750m no-grow Pfandbrief on Wednesday as Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) marketed its inaugural sterling benchmark to UK investors amid a sharp fall in global yields.

Aside from the covered bond market, issuance volumes fell away in most corners of the primary market last week as the markets slow for summer. Although most deals were well subscribed, the average oversubscription ratios in each market struggled to maintain previous levels — a reflection of the tight spreads on offer in FIG and corporate bond markets.

Royal Bank of Canada has sold the third Canadian covered bond in sterling this year, landing its £1.25bn deal at a spread identical to those of its two peers. Meanwhile, Münchener Hypothekenbank is set to join the sterling spree in the coming days with the first fixed rate covered bond in the currency since 2018.

BNP Paribas sold its first Swiss franc green bond on Tuesday, navigating concerns over the non-preferred format to twice bump up the size of its Sfr230m ($230.8m) deal. It was joined in the market by Pfandbriefzentrale, which printed two tranches of covered bonds.