EIB

A quiet dollar market left space for sterling issuance on Monday, with both the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) launching deals. The former plumped for a five year floater while the latter priced a tap of three year notes.

Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs have been mandated by the European Investment Bank to lead manage a new three year benchmark. The deal is expected to appeal to bank treasuries and central banks looking to pick up short dated paper.

The European Investment Bank is likely to settle for $1bn at a sale of a new seven year RegS/144A benchmark having attracted a $900m over the course of Monday morning, a banker close to the trade said.

The EIB sold a tap of 12 year bonds on Monday morning to a muted investor reception. While the deal reached the minimum size, tight pricing and a focus on longer dated maturities prevented the deal from growing.

The European Investment Bank and Municipality Finance both tapped a sterling market hungry for deals on Wednesday. The EIB was able to seize on investor demand to price a deal with very little new issue premium over their sterling curve, despite already having raised £1.75bn in the currency already this year.

The Nordic Investment Bank and the European Investment Bank snapped up opportunities in niche currencies on Friday — NIB sold its first Brazilian real deal in almost two years and the EIB tapped a five year Norwegian krone deal. The deals are likely to be the first of a rush — niche currency markets will be a hotbed of activity in the coming weeks, said bankers.

The EIB opened its EARNs programme for the year on Thursday with a successful five year deal that achieved giant size, tightened pricing and a sub-Libor reoffer level. The deal was the latest example of how much January 2013 has so far felt like a return to pre subprime crisis days in the SSA market.

The European Investment Bank priced its first Swiss franc trade of the year on Thursday, but the deal stayed at the minimum size. Given an expensive euro/Swiss franc basis swap, bankers away from the trade questioned whether the deal may have been better saved for another day.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are set to answer the burning question in the SSA dollar market on Tuesday as they attempt to find the price at which the apparently rampant appetite for SSA dollar paper extends to tightly priced supranational credits.

The Italian treasury has wasted no time in returning to the syndicated benchmark market this week by awarding four banks the mandate for a new bond, following a stellar opening week for SSAs. Meanwhile, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) has also elected to return to the new issue market and other borrowers will not be far behind, say senior bankers.

Friday saw a flurry of activity in the 10 year area of the curve in Australian dollars, with supranationals looking to take advantage of yield hungry investors pushing along the curve and a favourable basis swap.

The EIB continued a rush of early year funding on Thursday, tapping 12 year euro bonds in order to take advantage of lively trading in the supranational’s long dated debt.