LBBW

Philip Hertlein resigned from his job as head of SSA syndicate and origination at LBBW on Tuesday. In his absence, the team has been bolstered by Oliver Franke, who joins the bank from Crédit Agricole.

Syndicate bankers are scrambling to make sense of the covered bond market, where sentiment has been changeable in recent weeks. Amid volatility and small issuance windows, sustainable bonds have proven a safe strategy to ensure successful deals.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt did not need to offer any premium to investors to complete its debut sale of green covered bonds on Wednesday. The deal adds to a recent flurry of socially responsible investments, which are offering financial issuers very competitive terms.

Berlin Hyp left ‘a little bit on the table’ with its new green covered bond on Tuesday. The trade was followed by deal announcements from Kookmin Bank and Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt, both looking to issue in sustainable format.

NN Bank used a quiet market this week to launch the first deal from its new soft bullet covered bond programme. The inaugural deal carried an ‘attractive’ spread and was more than three times subscribed at final terms.

NN Bank unveiled plans on Monday to issue its first covered bond from its newly published soft-bullet programme. At the same time, Berlin Hyp has mandated lead managers for the sale of a new green covered bond.

Lenders to Wirecard, the embattled German payments company, will have to decide whether to call in its €1.75bn syndicated loan, after its auditor EY refused to sign off its 2019 accounts, which the company announced on Thursday, sending its share price into a spiral. Markus Braun, the company's CEO, resigned on Friday.

The European Investment Bank and the State of Brandenburg have mandated banks to bring euro deals on Thursday, in what has been an extremely thin week for supply with issuers well funded and some weakness in secondaries.

The Flemish Community has mandated banks to arrange the sale of new seven and 30 year bonds as the Belgian sub-sovereign looks to pump in cash to finance a budget deficit which has arisen from the coronavirus pandemic.

Tom Tailor, the German fashion brand, has signed a €100m loan guaranteed by the federal and regional governments. It has also extended its existing bank line, although the company says it will not be enough to stave off insolvency at holding company level.

The coronavirus crisis may have hit overall covered bond supply prospects, but it has provided a silver lining for some banks — such as Credit Suisse, ING and Commerzbank which have all fared well in the covered bond league tables this year.

The corporate bond market made a promising start to the week with oil company OMV’s dual tranche bonds and Deutsche Börse’s hybrid trade commanding sizeable books and big price moves, which bodes well for the spate of mandates that have landed on investors’ screens.