Austria

Austria is to print a 10 year benchmark as investor sentiment rebounded after a torrid time last week as BNG priced a seven year bond.

Hypo Tirol overcame lingering concerns in the aftermath of the Heta Asset Resolution debacle to issue an oversubscribed and relatively well distributed five year Pfandbrief on Thursday.

Hypo Tirol was never expected to be an easy trade given lingering concerns about Austria’s smaller banks and the aftermath of the Heta Asset Resolution debacle. So it was a relief when, on Thursday, the issuer managed to attract an oversubscribed and relatively well distributed order book for its €500m five year mortgage-backed covered bond.

Swiss franc investors made the most of a rare opportunity to buy Austrian sub-sovereign paper on Thursday when Land Niederoesterreich (Lower Austria) tapped its April 2021 and September 2023 bonds.

Austrian engineering and construction group Strabag has refinanced the €2.4bn of loans it signed in 2014 — a record size for an Austrian corporate borrower — with no changes to the banking group.

Austrian parking facilities developer Best in Parking walked into a frozen bond market on Tuesday with a €90m unrated bond, that was a tougher than expected sell to its domestic investor base.

A large group of investors is determined to reject a buyback offer on billions of euros in soured bonds guaranteed by the Austrian State of Carinthia — an offer that may represent the province's only chance of avoiding an unprecedented bankruptcy. Covered bonds are unaffected.

A large group of investors is determined to reject a buyback offer on billions of euros in soured bonds guaranteed by the Austrian State of Carinthia — an offer that may represent the province's only chance of avoiding an unprecedented bankruptcy, writes Graham Bippart.

Best In Parking, the unrated Austrian parking facilities developer, has hired two banks to arrange its inaugural bond transaction.

Five issuers from core Europe priced covered bonds this week but the standout success, which could have been priced without the European Central Bank’s help, was the first Austrian deal of the year from Erste Bank.

Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark and Bayerische Landesbank issued Austrian and German Pfandbrief, respectively, on Wednesday. The fact that the Austrian deal was only just oversubscribed and the German deal was placed only with domestic investors reflected the pernicious influence of the covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3).

Erste Bank issued the first Austrian Pfandbrief of the year, attracting a comfortably oversubscribed book and setting a strong start for issuers from the beleaguered country. At the same time, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank issued a tightly priced and larger than expected German Pfandbrief.