The Netherlands

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB) will look to fill the €1bn-€1.5bn it has left to raise this year with its annual water bond benchmark and potentially a short end benchmark. That is in keeping with the wider SSA market, where bankers expect socially responsible investment (SRI) issuance to form the bulk of this year’s final trades.

NIBC Bank issued its first ever bond transaction in sterling on Thursday after a dormant period for financial sector borrowers in the currency.

A strong order book allowed ING to raise €1.5bn on Thursday with the euro leg of its first ever green holdco bond — a size that was twice as large as any other financial institution has so far achieved with an unsecured green transaction in the currency.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank will look to fill the €1bn-€1.5bn it has left to raise this year with its annual water bond benchmark and potentially a short end benchmark. That is in keeping with the wider SSA market, where bankers expect SRI issuance to form the bulk of the last trades this year.

ING is lining up its first ever sale of green bonds from its holding company, having made the unusual decision to sell a tranche of debt in dollars as well as euros.

Qiagen, the Dutch biotechnology company, has returned to the equity-linked market to sell a six year senior unsecured convertible bond with a similar call spread structure to one it sold in September 2017.

The European Financial Stability Facility has opted to tackle a part of the euro curve where KfW found substantial demand last week, with a trade that SSA bankers said should provide a steer on the health of the euro market. There was one positive sign for the sector on Monday, as a Dutch agency increased the size of an SRI bond from its initial target.

Green bond bankers believe the Dutch government’s decision to issue its first green bond next year will encourage other borrowers in the country to follow suit — even though many of the large bond issuers have already done so. They are speculating about whether the government might break its long habit and syndicate the bond — and also hope it will use the opportunity to set a template of best practice, writes Jon Hay.

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A megayacht of a trade from KfW this week suggested that potential headwinds — including the end of quantitative easing, Italy’s reckoning with the European Commission and Angela Merkel’s plan to step away from politics — are failing to sink sentiment in the euro market. But some SSA bankers warned that the trade was more just proof that KfW can float in these conditions — and that an upcoming deal for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be a better buoy for the sector’s currents.

A quartet of public sector borrowers brought small dollar deals this week that were fine but unspectacular, which SSA bankers said was down to a confluence of factors. There are hopes that with the market likely quiet next week for the US mid-term elections and Federal Open Market Committee meeting, conditions could return to their best for the albeit limited funding windows left in 2018.

The Netherlands plans to join the burgeoning list of sovereign green bond issuers and could become the first triple-A rated country in the group. Whether the bond will be via syndication or the country's preferred auction method has yet to be decided. Meanwhile, two of the country’s public sector SRI borrowers were busy in the format this week.