Germany

The sterling SSA market snapped back into life with a flurry of new deals after a quiet few weeks — although bankers lamented that the issuance door may have closed just as quickly as it opened.

E.On is expected to re-lever its balance sheet to support its new, more pedestrian business mix after its acquisition of Innogy is completed in 2019, according to analysts at Bernstein.

Volkswagen’s real estate arm launched a debut green Schuldschein on Wednesday, the first of the year.

The potential end of eurozone quantitative easing may be leading to sleepless nights for some, but top tier SSAs are welcoming the slow return to historically normal rates. KfW this week sold its first five year euro benchmark with a positive yield in nearly three years, welcoming back investors that had gone elsewhere in search of return — and auguring well for future euro issuance from the sector.

The US affiliate of Wacker Neuson has raised $100m in the Schuldschein market with dollar notes, at cheaper pricing than it could have achieved with a US private placement.

Books closed on the IPO of Siemens Healthineers, the healthcare technology division of Siemens, on Thursday lunchtime, with the base deal valued at €3.65bn and the company at €28bn.

The day after a jumbo corporate bond issue is often a quiet one for new issuance as investors digest their allocations and assess the impact on secondary spreads. But after Sanofi's €8bn offering on Wednesday, Thursday was another bumper day.

Deutsche Hypo followed other German lenders into the UK market to price its first covered bond in sterling on Thursday. The deal was priced just 7bp inside where SEB issued an unsecured FRN on the same day.

Vonovia, the German housing company, issued €2.1bn of bonds on Thursday to finance its €5.2bn acquisition of Austrian peer Buwog, which was announced in December.

WL Bank was unable to secure much private demand for a €500m 10 year on Thursday, yet managed to get over the finishing line with much some help from the Eurosystem, though it was less than might have been expected.

KfW built a towering book in the five year part of the euro curve on Wednesday with a deal that SSA bankers away from the trade said probably attracted heavy French demand. The agency’s choice of printing just €4bn from a book of over €8bn should ensure a tightening of its curve, they added.

The primary market was quiet on Wednesday, but activity looks set to improve as a trio of issuers from Poland and Germany mandated joint lead managers for benchmark covered bonds — to be issued in euros and sterling on Thursday.