Germany

After Volkswagen printed the biggest trade in its history the previous week, the company’s International Finance arm sold a six tranche dual-currency deal on Monday. In total, the company raised more than €14bn equivalent in a week.

Holders of HSH Nordbank’s tier one securities have reacted angrily to the German bank’s announcement that it expects to write the instruments down further. Bondholders are also meeting later this month to vote on taking legal action against the bank.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

After a year during which euro issuance from SSAs has far outstripped that in dollars, thanks to the vagaries of the euro/dollar basis swap, a German agency was able to nip in to a funding week shortened by US elections and central bank meetings to score a strong result with its sole dollar benchmark of the year.

The European Financial Stability Facility finished off its 2018 issuance this week with what was likely the last jumbo euro benchmark of the year. The deal was solid, but SSA bankers warned the euro market feels “tired”.

Daimler International Finance returned to the Swiss franc bond market on Wednesday, selling Sfr400m worth of four and seven year bonds.

Bafin, the German financial regulator, is seriously considering reclassifying Schuldscheine from loans to securities as the market pushes towards digitisation, according to a senior German debt banker. Such a move would have far-reaching consequences on demand for the product, which has allowed the market to blossom over the past two years, writes Silas Brown.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has unveiled regulatory relief for EU counterparties that have non-cleared derivatives agreements with UK entities. The measures aim to help alleviate increased costs that may kick in due to a no-deal Brexit.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia rounded out the week’s euro issuance with an oversubscribed 10 year euro deal that was priced 1bp inside guidance.

BMW Finance found no reduction in the demand for its paper, despite its new issue on Thursday being its fourth dual-tranche deal of the year. The company has sold at least €1.75bn during each previous quarter of 2018, and it hit that mark again with its shortest combination of tenors.

Rentenbank and Eurofima showed that Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US might be hogging most television airwaves but they have been making little waves in the dollar SSA market.

DZ Hyp this week issued its first Pfandbrief following the merger of DG Hyp and WL Bank. At €1bn, the deal was larger than most and, though it was priced much tighter than a range of non-German seven year deals, it did land at the widest level for a German bank of this rating in over two years.