Austria

The Austrian government's decision on winding up Hypo Alpe Adria is a sign of waning state support said Fitch on Friday. The announcement comes as Standard & Poor’s put the ratings of seven Austrian banks on credit watch negative, leading Commerzbank research to suggest selective Austrian covered bonds could soften.

The constructive covered bond constellation of conditions continued on Thursday as UniCredit Bank Austria took advantage of superlative funding conditions demonstrated in Swedbank’s deal on Wednesday to issue its third deal of the year. Despite pricing almost flat to the curve, the deal attracted one of the highest levels of oversubscription of any Austrian covered bond in two years.

Credit sentiment is positive, and it seems unlikely that the European Central Bank would take anything other than an accommodative stance at next week’s policy meeting, but bankers are getting cautious that valuations are becoming overstretched, particularly in those markets which have until now been considered safe havens.

UniCredit Bank Austria issued its second €500m benchmark and the group’s fourth covered bond of the year on Monday. The long five year transaction took advantage of excess demand that was identified in core covered bond deals that priced the previous week, but offered a juicier pick up.

Ratings dominated the covered bond market on Tuesday as several Spanish deals were upgraded, while Austria’s Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank’s covered bonds were downgraded. A number of core issuers are monitoring the market, but are not yet ready to the pay the new issue premiums being demanded.

Bayerishe Landesbank’s covered bonds were unaffected on Friday by news on the wind down of Austria’s Hypo Alpe-Adria (HAA), which it partially owns. However, other Austrian covered bonds widened a few basis points after Austria’s finance Michael Spindelegger warned that unsecured bondholders might need to share in the bank’s losses.

Kommunalkredit Austria appointed joint leads on Tuesday for a public sector backed deal likely to be launched after a roadshow.

Aareal Bank and UniCredit Bank Austria priced successful euro deals in five and 10 year maturities on Monday, while Abbey issued a three year in sterling. All three priced at the tighter end of initial thoughts. However, prospective core borrowers with larger funding needs may need to offer more tempting spreads as the market softened on Monday.

Hypo Noe Gruppe Bank AG is set to issue its first mortgage-backed deal early in 2014 after getting a triple-A rating from Moody’s. It will be collateralised mostly by promoted housing company loans and commercial loans of average quality.

UniCredit Bank Austria returned to the covered bond market for the second time this year to issue the country’s seventh benchmark in euros. Despite pricing with little to no new issue premium the deal attracted good demand from a wide group of investors.

Despite the close proximity of the US debt deadline on Thursday, the covered bond market was stable and well supported on Tuesday, said bankers, who are waiting for imminent deal mandates from Austria and Italy.

HSH Nordbank and Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien joined the rush of issuers bringing deals on Wednesday, selling five year and seven year no grow €500m benchmarks, respectively. While RLB NW continued the price tightening trend for Austrian landesbanks, HSH Nordbank offered a generous spread to make sure any rating or reputational concerns among investors were cast aside.