Austria

Austria, Belgium and Greece went out with mandates for syndications at various parts of the euro curve on Monday, just a day before a crunch vote in the UK Parliament on amendments to prime minster Theresa May’s Brexit plan. But bankers said concerns around Brexit are limited and are no roadblock to sovereign issuance.

Guarantor: Republic of Austria

It was another sparkling week in dollars for public sector borrowers, with Asian Development Bank the pick of the bunch as it brought the tightest deal of the year so far versus Libor and US Treasuries. More supply is expected for next week, although some SSA bankers feel the market could do with a “breather”.

PKO Bank Hipoteczny (PKO), Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) and Raiffeisenlandesbank NiederÖsterreich-Wien (RLB-NW) all found strong demand for their €500m covered bond deals this week.

Oesterreichische Kontrollbank’s decision to mix up this week’s dollar supply with a three year benchmark reaped rewards on Thursday, as it recorded one of its largest ever allocations to central banks and one of its tightest ever US Treasury spreads. But some SSA bankers believe the dollar market might need a “breather” after a rampant start to the year.

The public sector dollar market on Wednesday showed that it had more than enough depth to cope with a pair of issuers bringing deals in the same maturity with just a basis point of difference in initial price thoughts, as both trades came in size and at tightened pricing. Another agency is set to dip into the demand on Thursday.

Fearful of missing out and, in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into six covered bonds on Tuesday with a combined value of more than €6bn.Royal Bank of Canada’s deal epitomised the state of investor frenzy as it was able to issue the largest deal of the year with a negative new issue premium.

A decision by Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale (Helaba) to issue a rare three year covered bond as part of a two part offering, paid off and put its covered bond offering head and shoulder above other deals issued this week by BayernLB, HVB and UniCredit Bank Austria.

Small benchmark covered bond deals issued on Wednesday by Deutsche Bank’s Spanish subsidiary and UniCredit’s Austrian subsidiary were slow to build and priced in line with initial guidance. This led some to question whether this was due to a degree of unease with their parent groups or whether investors baulked at the pricing process.

Austria’s OMV has signed €3bn of revolving credit facilities, in what bankers that worked on the deal are calling the largest existing deal of its kind in the Austrian market.

Austria’s Verbund has joined the ESG-linked revolving credit facility fray, with the electricity company signing what leads say is the first such deal in the country.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV sold its first senior corporate bonds of 2018 on Monday after it attracted €3.9bn of demand for a pair of €500m notes with five year and 10 year tenors.