Covered Bonds

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) attracted more demand for its €500m nine year than Hypo Vorarlberg Bank (Vorhyp) did for its €500m eight year this week, even though the Austrian deal benefits from greater scarcity value.

BPER Banca had slightly more success than compatriot Mediobanca on Tuesday with a defensively priced €500m five year Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite.

Hypo Vorarlberg (Vorhyp) and Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) have mandated leads respectively for eight and nine year €500m no-grow covered bonds.

Standard & Poor’s assigned an investment grade rating to the National Bank of Greece’s (NBG) conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond programme on July 6.

After a long hiatus, the Italian financial institution bond market exploded into life with week with two covered bonds and one debut unsecured transaction. Though demand was clearly more nuanced for the second covered bond, bankers were hopeful others would soon follow. Bill Thornhill and Jasper Cox report.

Mediobanca followed Intesa into the Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite (OBG) market on Thursday and, despite coming with an easier to sell shorter maturity, demand was down by almost two-thirds compared to the earlier deal. Even so, bankers have not ruled out the possibility that one or two Italian banks could soon follow.

Germany may have been kicked out of the FIFA World Cup but they still know how to issue a good Pfandbrief, according to a German lead manager who worked on HSH Nordbank’s five year Pfandbrief that was launched on Thursday alongside an Austrian deal — Raiffeisenlandesbank (RLB) Oberösterreich’s 10 year, which also achieved an excellent reception.

GlobalCapital requests that market participants nominate the best lead managers, issuers and deals for the voting shortlists for this year’s Covered Bond Awards. These should be submitted by July 8 and will be voted on by the market from late July to mid-August.

HSH Nordbank has mandated joint leads for a €500m five year mortgage backed Pfandbrief. Investors should benefit from a potential rating upgrade.

Stadshypotek issued a €1bn seven year on Wednesday marginally wider than where DNB Boligkreditt recently issued its much larger green inaugural deal in the same tenor. It followed a €500m five year from Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt.

Intesa Sanpaolo has issued the first Italian covered bond since January, reopening the market with a sizeable deal that is likely to be followed by a number of other Italian issuers.

Crédit Agricole and Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) found good demand for their covered bonds on Tuesday, but it was Crédit Agricole’s transaction that really stood out by virtue of its size and maturity, which until now had been viewed with trepidation.