Germany

KfW has mandated banks for its first €STR transaction as it looks to become the third public sector borrower to sell a bond linked to the new euro risk-free rate.

Danish Ships Finance, Natixis Pfandbriefbank and Raiffeisen Bank International will keep the primary market busy with deals and roadshows this week. But the main focus will be on the size and spread that Deutsche Bank achieves for its innovative debut structured conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond that will be launched imminently.

Intesa Sanpaolo and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) gave investors the chance to put money into preferred senior paper on Tuesday. Both trades attracted chunky order books and gave away a small new issue premium.

HVB, the German subsidiary of UniCredit, on Tuesday attracted one of the highest orders books for a €1bn covered bond from a core European bank in the last six months. It was able to tighten the pricing gap by 4bp to a competing deal issued by OP Mortgage Bank.

The covered bond market was on strong form at the beginning of the week, with Austria’s Volksbank Wien extending its covered bond curve with its second ever trade, which it priced flat to fair value.

Issuers in the financial institutions bond market do not want to see the chance for cheap funding slip, so more are lining up deals. On Monday, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) mandated leads for a preferred senior bond in euros, and UK insurer Utmost International said it was aiming for an senior unsecured bond in sterling.

KfW’s inclusion of ESG ratings in a term sheet might seem a superficial step — just one more disclosure of another piece of publicly available data — but it is a step towards a more sensible system of socially responsible investment.

KfW made a simple but potentially significant step in the evolution of bond markets this week as it became the first borrower to highlight its environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings in term sheets for a bond issue, from the mandate announcement to the final pricing details. SSA bankers and issuers have applauded the move and other public sector borrowers are looking to follow, writes Burhan Khadbai.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

UniCredit’s has chalked up its best quarterly numbers in a decade, its CEO said on Thursday, with the performance of the investment bank lifted by soaring trading revenues. The Italian lender claimed victory on its ‘Transform 2019’ plan, ahead of the launch of a new business strategy early next month.

Gewobag, the A2/A+ rated German housing company, has launched the first Schuldschein with Euribor floor set below zero, just months after placing €700m of Schuldscheine into the market.

In an illustration of the spread tightening under way in covered bonds, Deutsche Apotheker-und Aerztebank (Dapo) priced a 10 year inside its curve this week. At the same time Raiffeisenlandesbank Vorarlberg followed DZ Bank into the 15 year tenor to give a tempting reoffer yield of almost 50bp.