Europe

Greencoat UK Wind, one of a number of recently listed British renewable energy funds, is set to raise £100m that will refinance a bank facility used for the fund's recent acquisitions.

Commerzbank opened books for a €1bn five year mortgage Pfandbrief on Monday, and was set to issue in line with the spread achieved by Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF), which issued a deal of the same tenor two weeks ago. The pricing shows that there is no longer a spread between French and German covered bonds.

Covered bonds backed by environmental and social governance (ESG) mortgage loans are expected to become an important component of the booming socially responsible investment market following a ground-breaking Pfandbrief issued this week by Münchener Hypothekenbank (Muhyp). But bringing trades to market will not be without its challenges.

The Spanish housing market has started to stabilise as the fall in the value of repossessions has steadied, and house prices have begun to rise for the first time in seven years, according to a report published by Fitch on Thursday.

Danske Bank opened books on Wednesday on a triple-A rated five year euro benchmark, its second euro deal of the year coming soon after its seven year sterling transaction early last week. A solid book build blew away Tuesday’s concern that a soft credit market and a series of upcoming potentially disruptive events may have turned the deal sour.

Münchener Hypothekenbank (Muhyp) has priced the first covered bond backed by environmental and social governance (ESG) mortgage loans. The €300m deal attracted a rich new seam of demand from investors that had never bought covered bonds from this issuer, in a move that is expected to spur other borrowers to consider ESG covered bond deals of their own.

Hypo Tirol has mandated leads to roadshow its inaugural syndicated €300m public sector backed Pfandbrief starting this week.

Danske Bank has mandated leads for a five year euro benchmark, its third benchmark this year and second in euros. The deal is expected to be launched on Wednesday.

Hypo Noe priced its inaugural €500m Austrian mortgage-backed Pfandbrief on Monday through the bid side of its interpolated public sector curve, and with barely any sensitivity in the book. The strong result is a testimony to the enhanced demand for all covered bonds that offer a spread over mid-swaps and anything that is potentially eligible for the forthcoming European central bank purchase programme.

Credit Suisse (CS) opened books on Thursday for its second seven year euro deal of the year. Leads ascribed the 3bp pickup offered against Wednesday’s Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) deal to the Swiss bank’s lack of LCR eligibility.

Westfälische Landschaft Bodenkreditbank (WL Bank) opened books on Thursday on an AAA rated €600m no-grow 10 year mortgage-backed Pfandbrief, its second deal of the year and the fifth 10 year print to come out of Germany in 2014. In contrast to Aareal Bank’s deal on Wednesday WL’s order book was oversubscribed many times.

Abbey National returned to the euro covered bond market for the first time this year on Thursday, following the same dual tranche format that Nationwide and Helaba have successfully established. Though UK bonds are unlikely to be eligible for the European Central Bank’s forthcoming purchase programme, both tranches priced with a negligible new issue premium with well oversubscribed and granular demand.