Canada

The vitality of the covered bond market was in no doubt over the first quarter of 2016 as volumes reached their highest level in five years.

Tata Steel is expected to offer banks a much higher return for a refinancing related to its Canadian operations than it paid for its recently concluded $1.5bn facility, according to sources.

Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba) and WL Bank met contrasting outcomes for their euro denominated German Pfandbriefe issued this week.

The World Bank last Friday printed in Canadian dollars for the first time in a year, seizing on strong sentiment following the European Central Bank's latest bout of monetary easing.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and National Australia Bank (NAB) raised more than €3bn this week in the US dollar denominated covered bond market, nearly doubling supply seen so far this year.

Tata Steel is speaking to banks for a $600m loan to refinance debt related to its Canadian operations, GlobalCapital Asia understands.

Tata Steel is holding conversations with banks to refinance debt related to its Canadian operations. The talks come even as the company is a week away from winding up a $1.5bn refinancing for its Singapore subsidiary.

Toronto-Dominion Bank

The primary market looked less stable on Thursday as a seven year euro deal from Bank of Nova Scotia and a sterling deal from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce were slow to build and barely oversubscribed. However, a competing euro seven year from Bankia found strong demand.

Toronto-Dominion Bank followed its quarterly earnings report with a deal on Monday, paying up versus floating rate and dollar formats to extend its euro fixed-rate senior curve with a five year transaction.

Royal Bank of Canada demonstrated the health of the primary covered bond market on Friday when it priced a €1.5bn deal that offered a minimal new issue concession. And with only one week to go before the European Central Bank’s policy meeting, other issuers will be keen to join apoBank, which mandated leads for a deal.

Royal Bank of Canada reported a C$24m year-on-year decrease in profits from its capital markets division on Wednesday, as debt origination declined and the bank increased provisions against its oil and gas exposure.