Currencies

Banco Santander closed the books on a Eu1bn five year cédulas hipotecarias issue yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon after five-and-a-half hours of bookbuilding, with orders only just matching the deal size.

Banco Santander opened books on a five year cédulas hipotecarias with guidance of the 50bp over mid-swaps area this (Tuesday) morning, surprising market participants because a 10 year issue had initially been expected. Meanwhile, Dexia Municipal Agency is said to be preparing a 12 year benchmark.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos is set to take Abbey’s place as the record ninth benchmark covered bond issuer this week, after the Portuguese but not the UK bank decided to brave the week’s widening market.

In contrast to most of this week’s supply, the inaugural HSBC Covered Bonds (France) transaction was yesterday (Wednesday) priced at the tight end of where it had been whispered, despite being the seventh seven year of 2010 and being launched into a weak market.

Swedbank Mortgage this week became the first issuer to price a three year benchmark covered bond this year, before two other deals followed quickly in the same maturity. The issuer told The Cover that it wanted to distinguish itself from the longer dated issuance that had dominated supply so far.

UBS yesterday (Wednesday) launched the week’s third three year in quick succession but there was still enough demand for the leads to size a Eu1.5bn deal on the back of a Eu2bn order book.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier negotiated a tricky turn in the market to launch the largest three year covered bond since May 2008 yesterday (Tuesday). The issuer told The Cover that the deal’s size reflected the strong demand it encountered, especially from Asian and central bank buyers.

DnB Nor Boligkreditt launched its first issue for a year-and-a-half and longest dated covered bond benchmark on Monday and the issuer told The Cover that it had accelerated its issuance plans to take advantage of the strong market reopening and pricing on offer.

The benchmark covered bond market is today (Wednesday) set to break through the previous record for issuance in a week, with HSBC Covered Bonds and UBS having launched seven and three year deals, respectively, and Abbey understood to be whispering a five year issue.

Two issuers are understood to be building shadow order books today (Tuesday) in spite of the benchmark covered bond market having suffered its most difficult 24 hours since the flood of issuance began a week ago.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank yesterday (Monday) built a Eu1.1bn order book for its third benchmark covered bond since the restructuring of Hypo Real Estate Group, a Eu1bn seven year public sector Pfandbrief. The level of oversubscription was not particularly high, the issuer told The Cover, but investor demand was strong enough to allow Pfandbriefbank (pbb) to hit its target.