German Sovereign

Two German states rebooted the primary SSA market on Tuesday with intraday deals at the opposite ends of the euro curve. The five year deal was almost two times covered but there were no book updates for the 15 year.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, February 24. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

By opening up its debut social bond to retail investors, Munich highlighted an often overlooked strength of the socially responsible investment (SRI) market. Distributed correctly, these funding tools demonstrate the true impact of ethical investing.

Société du Grand Paris hoovered up strong demand this week to sell the longest ever public syndicated green bond. The French agency was joined by three other public sector borrowers in raising socially responsible bonds this week, including the first European city to issue a social-labelled bond.

Société du Grand Paris impressed the SSA market on Tuesday with a series of superlatives. It sold its biggest ever bond with the longest ever maturity for a syndicated green bond in any asset class. The City of Munich hit another landmark with the first social bond from a European city.

Société du Grand Paris and the City of Munich will break new ground in the socially responsible bond market this week as the pipeline for green and social debt from public sector borrowers builds.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

Three SSA issuers brought dollar deals to market on Wednesday, hitting screens in a variety of formats and tenors, making the most of excellent conditions to pull off impressive deals. A fourth is lined up for Thursday.

Finland received record demand for its first syndication of the year on Tuesday. The sovereign was joined in the long end of the curve by the State of North Rhine Westphalia as it tapped its February 2038s.

The Republic of Finland and the State of North Rhine Westphalia hired banks on Monday to prepare syndicated bonds at the long end of the euro curve. Yields of eurozone haven assets remain compressed while fears of the coronavirus outbreak intensify.

Few MTN issuers have so far issued in the Libor-replacing euro short term rate (€STR) format, with deals limited so far to supranationals, agencies and, this week, a sub-sovereign. Some bankers blame the 2017 EU Prospectus Directive for tightening up the rules on adding new indices to programmes, leaving non-exempt issuers on the sidelines.

The European Central Bank launched a strategic review of its monetary policy strategy on Thursday, but otherwise kept its fairly dovish stance on eurozone rates more or less unchanged.