Currencies

France received its biggest ever order book as it came to the market for a 20 year syndication on Tuesday. SSA bankers say that investors are looking for duration after previously sticking to defensive maturities as the Covid-19 crisis eases.

Two more eurozone sovereigns are set for syndications on Wednesday, with France eyeing up 20 years and Iceland coming for a six year bond.

A pair of French banks visited the five year point of the Kangaroo curve on Tuesday. BPCE raised A$650m of senior preferred paper, while BNP Paribas mandated for a senior non-preferred deal.

The head of the Cyprus public debt management office believes that the amount Cyprus can claim under the ESM pandemic support facility “is insufficient to justify any such action”.

A quartet of SSAs borrowed a combined A$940m ($613.4m) into the Kangaroo market this week, spurring the SSA Aussie dollar market on to its best monthly volume in over nine months.

Cyprus may become the first country to access the ESM’s pandemic support line, borrowing 2% of its GDP for up to 10 years.

A supranational and a Nordic bank paid rare visits to the Swiss franc market this week. The North American Development Bank (NADB) printed its first deal in two years — its second green bond — while Nordea returned after a five year absence.

Unédic, the French unemployment insurance agency, is facing an unprecedented strain on its services thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and its funding need has more than tripled as a result. CFO Jun Dumolard told GlobalCapital how the institution has been managing.

Unédic, the French agency responsible for French unemployment support, entered the social bond market on a permanent basis on Friday, launching its new social bond framework under which all its debt will be issued from now on. It christened the new programme with its largest bond in 10 years.

The Canton of Geneva took its 2020 funding up to almost Sfr1.2bn ($1.2bn) this week with a triple tranche deal — the most it has funded in a single year since 2013, according to Dealogic. Elsewhere, an attractive basis for dollar funders led a pair of rare issuers to return to the market.

Australia smashed its syndication record with a bumper A$19bn ($12.2bn) bond issue that attracted A$53.5bn of orders on Wednesday, while New Zealand set a record of its own as it upped its 2020-21 borrowing programme to NZ$60bn ($35.8bn).

The European Investment Bank inaugurated its sustainability awareness bond (SAB) framework in Australian dollars on Tuesday, while on Wednesday NRW.Bank printed the largest SSA Kangaroo so far this year.