Crédit Agricole

The European Investment Bank launched a €5bn seven year benchmark on Wednesday, pulling in what two SSA syndicate bankers said is one of the largest books ever for an Earn transaction.

After a month of much slower supply, increasingly desperate covered bond investors clamoured to buy a long nine year Hypothekenpfandbrief issued on Wednesday by DG Hyp. Though the bonds offered little new issue concession, interest was also boosted by the deal’s hefty spread over Bunds.

The European Investment Bank is set to tackle the seven year part of the euro curve on Wednesday, an area that has had no issuance from SSAs since early February.

Sustainability bonds are the flavour of the week for regional issuers, as the State of North Rhine-Westphalia smashed the size record for sub-sovereign SRI bonds on Tuesday and Île-de-France hit screens to announce its own socially responsible investment bond.

Covered bond supply is likely to recover over the next week or two, particularly in core Europe where spreads to Bunds have become more attractive, which bodes well for DH Hyp’s forthcoming Pfandbrief. But for non-eurozone issuers, senior funding is likely to prove more attractive.

French pharmaceuticals firm Ethypharm increased the sterling tranche in its term loan package on Tuesday, as it seeks to acquire UK-based Martindale Pharma.

The four banks under investigation by the US Department of Justice and other authorities for manipulation of SSA trading have made little, if any, mention of the risks of the probe in their reporting and regulatory filings.

South Korea’s Hyundai Capital Services timed its $600m outing well, thriving on its strong name recognition and the variety it added to the debt market to put together a fairly priced deal.

China Development Bank became the latest name to take advantage of a liquidity-abundant market, snapping up $3bn-equivalent from three floating rate tranches in two currencies — in one of the largest FRN trades out of Asia.

The State of North Rhine Westphalia will sell its third sustainability bond on Tuesday, following a pan-European roadshow.

China Development Bank Corp is making a swift return to the debt market with a floating rate transaction split between three and five year dollar portions and a 2020 tranche denominated in Hong Kong dollars.

Hyundai Capital Services opened books for a 144A/Reg S bond on Monday, its first outing this year. Issuers from South Korea have been active in DCM in 2017, but HCS will be the first non-bank financial credit from the country to woo investors.