Germany

The gap to repay a €2.7bn bridge facility that supports HeidelbergCement's purchase of Italcementi is set to close once the former cashes in the sale of its West Virginia factory.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten has tapped a June 2024 line, managing to print €400m despite offering a negative yield. Land NRW will sidestep the negative yield problem on Thursday by moving out the curve.

Deutsche Bank returned to covered bonds for the third time this year on Wednesday, extending its curve with a tightly priced 12 year.

Deutsche Bank is set to issue the third German Pfandbrief of the week after mandating leads for an ultra-long benchmark. Meanwhile, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) has priced the fifth dollar Pfandbrief of the year.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt on Tuesday followed Commerzbank into the covered bond market. By coming 20bp back of Commerz, the Norwegian sale was much smoother.

E.ON’s spinoff of Uniper, its fossil fuels operations, will be completed within weeks as preparations for a listing in Frankfurt near completion, with joint global coordinators JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley potentially first in the queue to handle residual sales of stock over the next three years.

Commerzbank and Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt have mandated leads for 10 year euro covered bond benchmarks after WL Bank issued a 10 year on Monday. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank is due with a dollar-denominated Reg S covered bond benchmark, while the main supply in capital comes from DBS Bank.

With a coupon of 0.10%, Monday’s €500m Pfandbrief from WL Bank had the lowest ever coupon on a benchmark 10 year covered bond — a result which Commerzbank was expected to follow.

A seemingly unstoppable flow of dollar issuance from public sector borrowers looks set to spill into next week, after a slightly undersubscribed deal early this week failed to dent sentiment for other trades.

The euro market is braced for a difficult close to the year. Given the turbulent conditions expected, green bonds may come into their own.

Guarantor: Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia

NRW.Bank will look to bring a euro green bond later this year, perhaps as soon as October, according to head of investor relations Frank Richter.