Germany

Austria’s Hypo Noe Gruppe Bank negotiated worsening market conditions on Thursday afternoon to price a no-grow €500m three year Pfandbrief, the second public sector deal in that tenor out of the jurisdiction in two weeks.

The Italian Department of Treasury is considering introducing a new instrument, separate from OBGs and securitisation, that would allow banks to use a wider range of assets for funding. Though only in a discussion phase, the move may see Italian issuers join their French and German counterparts in using structured covered bonds to alleviate funding pressure.

Secondary activity in the covered bond market is picking up, with a slew of deals and merger activity spiking interest. DexMA is performing but Dexia Kommunalbank is rudderless. Banco Pastor has tightened and Caixa Catalunya has seen some interest. Tier one French names are also enjoying better selling. More generally, stronger ECB rate cut expectations mean the short end is well supported.

ssuers will need to pick their timing carefully this week given German holidays on Monday, along with an Ecofin meeting in Luxembourg, a decision on another round of covered bond buying to be taken at Thursday’s ECB policy meeting and US non-farm payrolls on Friday.

Covered bond market participants are firmly focused on Thursday, when the ECB could announce another round of covered bond buying. Regardless of market conditions, a deal on Monday was always going to be unlikely because of German holidays. But the weak market opening has made a deal between now and the ECB meeting more tricky — particularly for the smaller names that dominate the pipeline. Covered bond traders reported a very quiet morning, with customers unwilling to take a position before Thursday.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb) has returned to the covered bond market after almost two years away. It sold a €500m five year mortgage Pfandbrief which was barely subscribed.

UniCredit’s German entity, HypoVereinsbank (HVB), brought its third covered bond of the year, a four year offering with a 2.125% coupon, on Tuesday. The borrower did not reach its target deal size and had to settle for a €500m print, with buyers taking smaller tickets than usual, suggesting they remain risk averse.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb) returned to the covered bond market on Wednesday with its first benchmark since January 2010. The €500m five year trade is the second of three Pfandbriefe launched in the last two days and offered one of the highest spreads for German paper this year.

Austria’s Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark brought its debut covered bond on Tuesday, choosing to test investor appetite for a new name with a three year €500m no grow deal.

German, French and UK issuers launched trades on Tuesday as indices tightened and stock markets rose on hopes that a solution to the eurozone debt crisis had been outlined over the weekend.

Secondary markets broadly remain under pressure, though there are cracks of light appearing here and there. The long end of the French market seems to be stabilising, there have been some buyers of Cédulas and there is still a smattering of interest in selective Scandinavian names. But the outlook remains dim and relative value against other sectors suggests covered bonds are expensive.

The Cover provides a brief summary of the regular covered bond research notes produced by Deutsche Bank, Société Générale CIB, LBBW, Barclays Capital and DZ Bank. With the covered bond to senior unsecured spread having widened considerably in the recent past, one of the key focuses is on relative value, and in some cases senior is preferred over covered. A couple of houses also look at the Scandinavian region with one highlighting the risk of house price declines on high LTV pools in Denmark and Sweden. Finally, one house looks at rising Spanish NPLs and finds that this should not be a problem – provided there’s a €75bn recapitalisation.