EIB

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress supranationals have made in their funding programmes.

The European Investment Bank, European Commission and EU member states are struggling to decide how to run InvestEU, a €47bn guarantee from the EU budget supposed to support €650bn in investment, as a successor to the Juncker plan. The Commission is seeking more direct control, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is also after a bigger role.

A record start to the SSA sterling market came to a halt early this week, with borrowers avoiding prints as the UK Parliament delivered a historically large defeat to the government over its planned withdrawal agreement with the European Union. But once the big risk of the event was out the way, supply picked up — although with Brexit’s direction as uncertain as ever, further blocks to issuance are likely.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

High grade bond markets have made a flying start to the year, defying the expectations of a bear market in fixed income following the end of the European Central Bank’s asset purchase programme and tightening of monetary policy in the US. Instead of the expected cautious tone, investors have been fuelling record order books, big deals and strong performance in the secondary markets, write Burhan Khadbai and Nigel Owen.

Italy and the European Investment received combined orders of over €50bn in the euro public sector market on Tuesday before what could be an even more uncertain period in Europe, with the UK parliament set to vote on prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement later in the evening.

SNCF Réseau paid a significant new issue premium for its first benchmark green bond since 2017 on Monday. The European Investment Bank will issue its own 10 year euro bond on Tuesday, following trades in sterling and dollars earlier in the year.

Hopes of a thriving new market for securitizations by multilateral development banks hit a hole in the road in December, when the US Treasury said it disapproved of them and would seek to stop them.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Public sector dollar issuance has had a slower start to the year than usual — in part because of super strong conditions in other currencies — but SSA bankers are confident the strength of the deals that did come this week will boost the pipeline.

The European Investment Bank and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten showed the strength of the dollar market on Tuesday as they sparked the sector into life for 2019 with benchmarks offering minimal concession. Another pair of SSAs are hoping to emulate that success on Wednesday.

The bond market is well ahead of schedule in its adoption of potential Libor replacements, with several issuers having printed notes linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (Sofr) in the dollar market, and to the Sterling Overnight Index Average (Sonia) in sterling. Borrowers are setting strong standards for other participants to take up, as well as adjusting structures to ensure the eventual market is optimal. That does not mean the job is finished, of course. GlobalCapital spoke to some of the pioneers in the Sonia and Sofr markets about their work so far — and the challenges ahead.