Austria

A series of modest taps at the long end of the Australian dollar curve at the end of last week suggests that what has been a quiet market for Kangaroo bonds could soon spark into life, according to SSA funding officials.

Strabag has signed bank facilities totalling €2.4bn, the Austrian construction and technology firm becoming the latest borrower to refinance early amid cheap funding conditions.

UniCredit Bank Austria returned to the covered bond market for the second time this year on Wednesday extending its curve with a a new 10 year deal.

French demand outweighed interest from UK accounts in an additional tier one deal for the first time this week when Erste Bank sold a €500m bond that it had first planned nearly a year ago.

Volksbank Wien on Monday became the 12th bank in Austria to issue benchmark covered bonds, selling its debut deal on the back of the highest subscription of any benchmark from the country in over two years.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development smashed its newly minted size record in sterling with its sophomore effort using the Sonia benchmark.

Volksbank Wien has mandated leads for a roadshow to market its debut covered bond and BPCE has mandated leads for the second French covered bond of the week. Meanwhile, Moody’s has assigned ratings to the covered bonds of Caja Rural de Granada, which has yet to issue its first deal.

Tip Trailer, the Dutch trailer services company, has refinanced its revolving credit facility (RCF), ramping the size up to €967m as it gathers funding for a range of growth plans.

Egger, the Austrian wood-based panel maker, has entered the Schuldschein market for a third time, shaving its pricing margins once again.

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There was another scorching start to the year for eurozone sovereigns this week with yet more records dropping as Belgium took its largest ever number of orders and Austria sold its biggest ever deal from its largest ever book. But it was the nature of the successes — Belgium with a long dated trade and Austria the most expensive 10 year of the year so far — that really caught the eye.

Austria's 10 year syndication on Tuesday received a final order book that was almost twice the size of its previous record volume. Belgium was also in the market with its second OLO of the year, opting this time for a much longer maturity. Both deals were in keeping with eurozone sovereign supply this year, comfortably printing a combined €10bn from over €55bn of orders.