The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), Europe's bail-out borrower, caused something of a stir in the market last week by announcing a three year deal just before a Eurozone summit on Wednesday evening.
Its timetable, with books scheduled to open the next morning, meant that the EFSF was leaving its deal vulnerable to whatever market ramifications the summit might have brought.
In the event, the borrower got a €3bn deal done, but some bankers away from the trade were left a little disappointed with the €4.5bn demand. Had the deal come a day earlier, it might have done better, they reckoned.
But much time spent speculating whether the issuer could have done slightly better if it had picked its slot differently seems to miss the important point — the EFSF sold a well-oversubscribed deal in spite of ugly Eurozone debt markets, and the never-ending uncertainty over what policymakers are going to do about it.
Admittedly, the deal had a conservative three year maturity. But it's worth remembering that this was a week when investors got so frightened that they piled into KfW at unheard-of pricing — and fell over themselves to buy two year Schatz with a zero coupon.
Against that backdrop, the EFSF's achievement looks like just that — an achievement. It's certianly not half bad for an issuer whose fate — more than that of any other borrower — is in the hands of those very policymakers whose procrastination has done little to stem the rampant fear in debt markets.