Covered Bonds

Rabobank is set to open order books for a two-part euro covered bond that takes advantage of the demand for higher yielding debt with the inclusion of a 20 year tranche. At the same time Coventry Building Society is planning a seven year in euros.

Austrian lender Bawag took pride of place among four covered bonds issued on Wednesday with its ultra-long deal being the most subscribed and the first to close order books. The transaction drew more demand than a much larger and barely subscribed seven year from Royal Bank of Canada and brought in twice as many orders as other deals from SP Mortgage Bank and Aareal Bank.

The fall in absolute yields to new record lows has heightened investors’ search for FIG bonds that offer an attractive pick-up. As a result, investors have favoured higher yielding senior non-preferred transactions from the eurozone periphery, ultra-long dated covered bonds and higher yielding central European and Asian covered bonds. By contrast, demand for lower yielding core European covered bonds, while still healthy, has begun to wane following the exuberant levels of demand witnessed in May.

BAWAG, SP Mortgage Bank and Tatra banka have all set their sights on the euro covered bond market, mandating for deals across the maturity spectrum.

Euro and dollar benchmarks issued by Nordea, Lloyds, Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) and SMBC on Tuesday was a fillip for covered bond market participants suffering through volatile credit market conditions that have caused price expectations to fall.

After restructuring its soft bullet programme to a conditional pass through (CPT), Alpha Bank’s covered bonds have been upgraded to Baa3, making them eligible for repo with the European Central Bank, thereby improving their appeal with investors, putting the bank in a stronger position for a return to the market.

Europe’s peripheral banks are likely to make most use of the third Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operation (TLTRO III), but covered bond issuance's prospects look strong, said bankers after the European Central Bank’s meeting on Thursday.

PKO Bank Hipoteczny issued its debut green covered bond on Wednesday, the first deal of its type from Poland. This deal is the ninth covered bond with an environmental and social governance (ESG) purpose to have been launched this year and, according to Commerzbank research.

Slovenská sporiteľňa’s first euro benchmark covered bond attracted strong demand from investors on Wednesday reflecting the transaction’s tempting returns in a largely negative yielding market, as well as its top credit rating.

Slovenská sporiteľňa mandated leads on Tuesday for a euro-denominated mortgage covered bond. It was a slow start to the month in covered bonds, but the Slovak issuer could break the quiet.

Peripheral and UK covered bonds have weakened amid broader deterioration in credit market conditions. But with activity muted the main focus is on Tuesday’s Euromoney/ECBC Covered Bond Forum in Toronto.

Ulf Erlandsson, the well known green bond investor, and Knut Kjaer, founding CEO of the $1tr Norwegian oil fund, are exploring starting a new investment strategy called Diem Green Credit.