Germany

Moody’s has upgraded WestLB Covered Bond Bank from A2 to Aa1 because of a change of its ownership from WestLB to Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), a wind-down entity set up for WestLB. The development is “very favourable” for bondholders, said the rating agency.

WestLB Covered Bond Bank has been taken over by Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), a wind-down entity into which non-core and riskier assets of WestLB have been transferred. A blanket guarantee of the Irish Asset Covered Securities issuer was also taken on by EAA.

Moody’s has downgraded the senior unsecured debt ratings of HSH Nordbank and WestLB by one notch because it has revised its assumptions about how likely it is that their public sector owners will support the banks.

Louis Hagen has been appointed spokesman of the board of management of Münchener Hypothekenbank by its supervisory board.

Moody’s has cut HSH Nordbank’s ship Pfandbriefe from Aa3 to A1, on review for possible downgrade, after completing a review of its rating methodology for structured finance transactions backed by shipping loans that led it to take a more conservative view on the cover pools of such assets.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Thursday) affirmed public sector-backed covered bonds issued by Deutsche Postbank at AAA and removed them from its review list.

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat and Dexia Kommunalbank Deutschland launched Eu500m five year covered bonds this (Thursday) morning.

Standard & Poor’s removed 10 covered bond programmes from review after affirming their ratings at AAA on Friday, but downgraded five programmes and these remain on review. The actions were taken on the last day of a four month period by the end of which S&P said it aimed to have resolved all 98 ratings it placed on review in December after introducing a new methodology.

Helaba yesterday (Wednesday) priced a Eu1bn seven year public sector Pfandbrief issue flat to agencies after building an order book that was more than five times oversubscribed. The issuer told The Cover that its return was prompted by a convergence of spreads available in the international and domestic markets.

Helaba will today (Wednesday) price its first jumbo Pfandbrief in six years, a Eu1bn seven year issue that, in the words of one syndicate official, met with a “complete stampede” for paper. Meanwhile, Ibercaja priced a Eu500m five year deal and Intesa Sanpaolo is expected to make its debut shortly.

Moody's will not give any economic value to non-EEA assets outside Switzerland, the US and Japan in German cover pools, but will continue to give full value to Swiss collateral backing Austrian and German covered bonds, the rating agency said yesterday (Tuesday).

Dexia Municipal Agency built an order book in excess of Eu1.25bn for a five year obligations foncières issue this (Tuesday) morning, while demand for new Spanish supply was subdued. A German bank, meanwhile, is expected to firm up plans shortly that will make it the sixth issuer to tap the covered bond market this week.