Greece

Piraeus Bank's Project Amoeba is one of the first secured Greek NPL portfolios to hit the market, and will serve as a crucial benchmark for pricing on the remaining €100bn of NPLs to come. Meanwhile, the other major banks are selling unsecured books.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia showed that the euro long end is open for core SSAs despite wider market volatility on Thursday, but there was a more testing time for Greece in secondary.

Greece’s return to capital markets last week drew nothing but praise on the day, but its subsequent performance in the secondary market has left something to be desired, said bankers.

Rating: Caa2/B/B-

Despite heavy volatility in the equity markets, in fixed income, public sector bond issuers had an excellent week. A cool €10bn hit the market in tenors from five to 15 years and from all parts of the spectrum within the asset class. Lewis McLellan reports.

After being sidelined by volatility in the equity market this week, Greece made it to market on Thursday with a €3bn seven year.

A battering in the US stock market sent ripples through financial markets on Monday and Tuesday but, with stability returning, investors are keen to put money to work while higher yields are available. But one opportunity to do so was snatched away from them on Tuesday.

Greece, which on Monday announced its intention to sell a seven year, kept away from markets because of wide swings in European govvie spreads — a decision lauded by bankers away from the transaction. Dimitris Tsakonas, head of funding at the Greece's Public Debt Management Agency, spoke to GlobalCapital.

Since Greece’s debt exchange operation in November, market participants have been expecting a return either at three years or seven years. Monday’s mandate brought the answer.

Alpha Bank was inundated with demand for its debut covered bond, benefiting from a series of positive credit events that have boosted the Greek sovereign, thereby enabling the issuer to print a considerably longer benchmark at a lower yield than its peers — and with much more demand.

Nordic high yield bond bankers are making a play to attract more borrowers from elsewhere in Europe, promising them access to local investors familiar with mid-cap borrowers and small deal sizes. This week, SecureLink, a Belgian software security company, listed its first bond on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Alpha Bank has mandated leads for the third publicly syndicated Greek covered bond in three months. But in contrast to the first two deals, it has chosen a longer maturity with a soft bullet structure, instead of a conditional pass through.