Pre-migration untagged articles

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for less than $250m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of less than 365 days.

Proponents of covered bonds are hopeful that legislation could be enacted in the US this year, even though a covered bond amendment failed to make it into the financial reform bill completed last week.

The Inter-American Development Bank priced a R$279m four year "poverty reduction" Uridashi via Daiwa on Thursday.

Spanish financing agency Instituto de Crédito Oficial demonstrated that it was willing to explore just about any funding avenues open to it in these difficult times for peripheral eurozone borrowers this week, as it sold its first puttable FRN and made an unexpected return to the Swiss franc market.

Achmea Hypotheekbank has dropped Standard & Poor’s rating of its covered bonds and hired Fitch, while Yorkshire Building Society is seeking bondholder consent to drop S&P from its programme as a result of changes to the rating agency’s swap counterparty criteria.

Spain’s Instituto de Credito Oficial printed 2012s in Swiss francs at 46bp through swaps, in October 2008. Now it is tapping the deal, and paying 170bp over. “In difficult times, sometimes it’s best to do something unusual,” said a Swiss syndicate banker. “It’s a challenging project, but we thought it had a chance.” Read EuroWeek on Friday for more comment and analysis.

Instituto de Crédito Oficial sold its first puttable FRN this week after initial reluctance to issue in the structure. BBVA placed a Eu200m deal for the borrower at a quite tight spread, as demand for puttables remains strong in the quiet market. Covered bond private placements have also constituted considerable flows, and several borrowers have sold covered notes this week. Read EuroWeek for more details on the ICO trade and other flows in the market.

A number of peak time LBOs are approaching maturity and will need to be refinanced with Eu40bn-Eu60bn due in 2013 and 2014 and Eu50bn-Eu60bn in 2015. The leveraged loan market and the high yield bond market are battling it out to take out some of the big refinancing needs of these sub-investment grade borrowers. To find out the prospects for this coming wave of LBOs and who will take on the bulk of the refinancings, read EuroWeek on Friday.

The European Central Bank’s covered bond purchase programme ended on Wednesday, with covered bonds of a nominal value of Eu60bn having been bought since the scheme started in July last year. The market now awaits its first test without support from the scheme, with HSH Nordbank on Monday having priced a Eu500m three year Pfandbrief that was the last sizeable new issue bought by eurozone central banks operating under the purchase programme.

Lloyds Banking Group has started marketing a 40 year non-call five senior unsecured transaction in the US — the first time that it has sought to access the US retail investor base. Expectations are that the deal, earmarked as a $300m issue, could grow much larger. To read about how US retail investors take to Lloyds, read EuroWeek on Friday.

Banks asked for Eu131.9bn in three months funding from the ECB on Wednesday, much lower than the market had been expecting — some analysts had predicted European banks might take as much as Eu250bn faced with expiry of the Bank’s Eu442bn one year refinancing facility on Thursday. The sense of relief was palpable with many interpreting the lower amount as an indicator of improved liquidity — European bank shares strengthened on the news.

Corporate bond issuers beat a hasty retreat this week as further volatility created what one banker called a “scary market backdrop”. This left Veolia Environnement, a French environmental services group, as the only borrower pressing ahead with a sizeable euro bond, on the back of a liability management exercise. The deal is set to price on Thursday. In sterling, the Notting Hill Housing Trust is due to keep the market ticking over with an issue on Wednesday. But with issuance forecasts for the full year already cut, is Europe’s corporate bond market heading for an early summer slowdown? Find out in EuroWeek on Friday.