Commerzbank

Five covered bond borrowers issued benchmark deals in the first half of this week, fearing potential volatility from Thursday's European Central Bank announcement on its sovereign quantitative easing programme.

NordLB Covered Finance Bank (NORD/LB CFB) is set to revive the sedentary Lettre de Gage (LdG) market and plans to issue its first benchmark sized covered bond. The issuer, which will take advantage of the recently updated Luxembourg legal framework, mandated leads for a European roadshow on Tuesday.

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Covered bond issuers from outside the Eurozone launched deals this week denominated in sterling and Australian dollars. But a bigger proportion were from the Eurozone where borrowers launched deals in the single currency in maturities that ranged from four to 20 years. The transaction were priced generously and enjoyed a solid reception, with central banks taking a back seat.

The covered bond market enjoyed its busiest week in the last three years as 16 borrowers launched benchmarks with a nominal value of €13.5bn ($15.70bn) across a range of currencies and tenors. But investors clearly showed a preference for the seven year — of which there were seven deals, accounting for half of this week’s supply.

Sekerbank is holding investor meetings for a covered bond which will be the bank’s first ever international bond issue. It will also be the first ever public Turkish covered bond.

South Korea’s Woori Bank raised smaller-than-expected $350m with its first dollar bond of 2015 on January 14. Due to the smaller order book size and slower bookbuilding process than usual, the South Korean lender had to settle for the lower end of what it aimed to raise, but has been enjoying a good performance in the secondary market.

Huhtamaki, the Finnish producer of food and drink packaging, signed a €400m five year revolving facility last week. The company sold its plastic films business in December and is consolidating its business into food packaging.

Woori Bank opened books to its first dollar bond this year on Wednesday, January 14, as the South Korean lender was encouraged by the relatively successful outcomes of compatriot Export Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) earlier this week.

French chemical company Arkema has completed the long term financing of its acquisition of Bostik, with a €700m 10 year senior bond on Tuesday.

Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker, has revved up the year's loan market business with a €1bn facility signed last week, that the company said was three times oversubscribed.