Europe

Caffil has mandated joint leads for a two part covered bond which, at the long end, is expected to offer a juicy spread.

The dollar market for public sector borrowers begins in earnest on Wednesday with a pair of borrowers out with benchmarks and bankers confident the deals will go well thanks to a demand/supply imbalance. The trades follow a small floater tap from a supranational on Monday that was the first syndicated deal of the year in the currency.

Lloyds Bank issued a £750m three year Sonia linked covered bond on Monday, taking advantage of the steepness of the sterling curve to cut the funding cost. But having issued almost £4bn ($5.1bn) in the last 12 months, demand was much less compelling than Nationwide’s recent Sonia debut.

FMS Wertmanagement was quick to execute its inaugural Sonia-linked bond on Monday amid strong sterling floater demand. That hunger is showing no signs of abating, with International Finance Corporation looking to follow with its own debut Sonia bond on Tuesday.

The European Financial Stability Facility rebooted the euro public sector market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of what SSA bankers expect to be a busy week for supply. Belgium and KfW are already on screens for benchmark trades in the 10 year part of the curve.

US private placement agents are preparing bids for transactions with higher yield targets than much of last year. But as borrowers are forced to offer chunky new issue concessions to lure public bond investors into primary markets, US PP agents are confident that pricing in their market is still enticing for issuers.

DNB Boligkreditt attracted a comfortably oversubscribed order book for its €1.5bn seven year covered bond on Monday, illustrating the market’s sweet-spots for tenor, name and jurisdiction.

Crédit Agricole managed to reach considerable size expectations and raise €1.5bn of covered bond funding in the challenging 10 year tenor on Monday. Although a tighter price might have been possible on Friday, the issuer’s size ambitions would probably have been thwarted.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel and Société Générale came out on Monday with euro-denominated deals in the safest part of the unsecured capital stack, as issuers adjust to a pessimistic mood at the start of 2019.

ING Groep was set to raise €1bn of senior notes for the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) on Monday, showing for the first time in 2019 what kind of a premium issuers may have to pay to complete new unsecured deals in euros.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe will host a special meeting of its high yield bond division on Wednesday, sources have told GlobalCapital, in an effort to woo back disgruntled investors.

The corporate bond market saw its second day of issuance in the new year on Monday when French multi-utility Veolia and Belgian electricity grid operator Elia sold new deals.