Germany

Rocket Internet has raised a $420m unlisted fund that will invest in its portfolio companies — an innovative funding mechanism arranged by Goldman Sachs.

FMS Wertmanagement has launched two separate tender offers on the Irish Stock Exchange for euro, swiss franc, US and Canadian dollar denominated covered bonds issued by DEPFA Bank and DEPFA Pfandbrief Bank SA.

HeidelbergCement, the German building materials manufacturer, has done part of the financing for its acquisition of ItalCementi in the Schuldschein market, but insists it is not afraid of volatility in the bond market.

NordLB

Five issuers from core Europe priced covered bonds this week but the standout success, which could have been priced without the European Central Bank’s help, was the first Austrian deal of the year from Erste Bank.

NRW.Bank printed a trio of €500m notes this week, equalling its highest ever weekly volume for private placements, according to Dealogic.

German Laender yields are expected to fall in the wake of the European Central Bank's announcement that sub-sovereign issuers are to be included in its asset purchase programme.

Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark and Bayerische Landesbank issued Austrian and German Pfandbrief, respectively, on Wednesday. The fact that the Austrian deal was only just oversubscribed and the German deal was placed only with domestic investors reflected the pernicious influence of the covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3).

The European Financial Stability Facility and Nederlandse Waterschapsbank on Tuesday brought euro benchmarks in five and seven year maturities. Now much more at those tenors is expected.

Deutsche Bank SA, Kookmin Bank, BayernLB and RLB Steiermark have mandated leads for covered bonds to be issued on Wednesday.

Erste Bank issued the first Austrian Pfandbrief of the year, attracting a comfortably oversubscribed book and setting a strong start for issuers from the beleaguered country. At the same time, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank issued a tightly priced and larger than expected German Pfandbrief.

German Länder yields are expected to fall in the wake of the European Central Bank's announcement that sub-sovereign issuers are to be included in its asset purchase programme.