Europe

NordLB Covered Finance Bank (NORD/LB CFB) has mandated leads for a European roadshow to sell its first benchmark sized covered bond under the recently amended Luxembourg legal framework. Though this deal will be backed by public sector assets, the law allows for a much wider pool of movable assets, suggesting there is potential for more innovative deals to follow.

Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) issued a €1bn seven year covered bond, the longest seen from any Portuguese issuer in four years. And at 1% it was also the lowest coupon ever paid by a Portuguese covered bond issuer. The comfortably oversubscribed deal offered a new issue premium of 3bp to 4bp. However, rival bankers said the spread looked unattractive relative to government bonds which are should benefit from prospective central bank buying.

The Swiss National Bank’s decision to dispense with the currency peg between the Swiss franc and euro is credit negative for Austrian covered bonds, said Moody’s on Monday. The agency identifies the pools of UniCredit Bank Austria, Vorarlberger Landes-und Hypothekenbank and Hypo Alpe Adria Bank as having the greatest exposure to Swiss franc assets.

Covered bond issuers from outside the Eurozone launched deals this week denominated in sterling and Australian dollars. But a bigger proportion were from the Eurozone where borrowers launched deals in the single currency in maturities that ranged from four to 20 years. The transaction were priced generously and enjoyed a solid reception, with central banks taking a back seat.

The covered bond primary market maintained robust momentum on Thursday as another four issuers priced deals. The seven year tenor remains the firm favourite with two new trades on Thursday taking the total to eight this year.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) respectively issued one of the shortest and longest covered bonds of 2015. BMO’s five year appealed to a wide audience enabling the borrower to issue a large €1.5bn deal. Though Caffil’s €500m 20 year appealed to a smaller audience, the very high quality investor base it appeals to bodes well for the deal’s long term performance.

Cajas Rurales Unidas is set to become the second Spanish issuer to launch a deal this week, having mandated leads for its third euro benchmark. The transaction is likely to offer the most attractive spread seen in covered bonds this year, and could reprice the issuer’s curve.

The European covered bond market kept up its momentum on Tuesday as four euro-denominated deals hit the screens and books were opened on another denominated in Australian dollars. The euro deals all offered a new issue concession of around 5bp and were comfortably oversubscribed.

The European covered bond market got off to an exceptionally strong start on Monday as LBBW, Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) and BBVA launched euro benchmarks across a range of maturities, without a hiccough. The strong start bodes well for Tuesday when several more euro benchmarks including Bank of Ireland and BPER are due.

Lloyds has become the fourth issuer this year to fund in sterling covered bonds, a market that has so far provided €3.65bn equivalent, almost as much as has been issued in euro benchmark format this year.

Santander raised €7.5bn of equity capital in a block trade on Thursday January 8, the biggest ever outside the US, to put its core equity tier one ratio up to 10%. The deal was priced at the low end of the discount range and led to a very steep fall in Santander's share price the day after – yet won some admiration from rival banks.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's European arm wrapped up a series of investor meetings in December for its debut Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) fund, which it had established in Luxembourg in October. As the very first RQFII fund to have 100% exposure to China’s domestic bond market, the benchmark product has attracted big interest from European investors, as well as some concerns about what is still a new concept, the bank has told GlobalRMB.