Germany

The distinction of being the widest constituent in the Markit iTraxx Europe is clearly one that most companies would prefer not to have. Yet Glencore has held this dubious honour since before the last index roll in March. It had a challenger in fellow miner Anglo American, but Anglo’s downgrade to junk and consequent removal from the investment grade index left the field open to the Swiss firm.

The Cover’s 10th annual covered bond awards took place this year at the Rheinterrace in Düsseldorf on Thursday, September 15.

Nordic Investment Bank brought the tightest dollar benchmark from a public sector borrower in over a year on Tuesday, while the State of North Rhine-Westphalia was also able to grind in pricing with a dollar deal of its own.

KfW brought a seven year euro benchmark on Tuesday that equalled for size a similar trade from fellow jumbo issuer European Investment Bank two weeks ago — but topped it for orders and spread.

Browse through the pictures taken during The Cover’s 10th annual award ceremony, which took place on the evening of Thursday September 15 at the Rheinterrace in Düsseldorf.

Over 1100 covered bond bankers attended the Euromoney-ECBC event in Düsseldorf last week. ‎Flights from London, Munich, Paris, Istanbul, Singapore, and the US brought the covered bond fraternity together for this landmark event.

Public sector borrowers are piling into the dollar market at the start of the week, with a US Federal Reserve rate decision on Wednesday likely to shorten the issuance window.

The Flemish Community of Belgium has announced that it will roadshow a euro syndication on September 26, while KfW has mandated three banks to sell a benchmark.

LBBW rode through last week’s volatility to raise €500m of tier two capital on Monday. Though order books may have shrunk in size, the bank was not forced to pay up and many accounts participated in the trade.

Berlin Hyp opened books for a €500m seven year green transaction on Monday, as it looked to become the first bank to offer green bonds in two asset classes.

The fledgling green covered bond market is likely to be a promising growth area, with efforts to standardise eligible mortgage loans expected to pave the way for lenders across Europe to issue deals, said panellists at Thursday’s Euromoney covered bond conference.

GlobalCapital is delighted to announce the winners of The Cover Awards 2016 to mark the successes of those in the covered bond market over the last year. The awards were presented in Düsseldorf last week at the Euromoney/ECBC Covered Bond Congress. Congratulations to all the winners, commiserations to the runners-up and thanks to all who took part.