The Netherlands

Another pair of public sector borrowers tapped the dollar market, hitting two and three years respectively, in contrast to Tuesday’s salvo of long end trades. One of the issuers printed well beyond its initial size expectations.

Dutch grid operator Stedin, formerly part of Eneco, was one of several issuers that met with investors before announcing deals this week. It had been discussing a sub-benchmark three year to five year floating rate note and a benchmark eight year fixed rate note, for what was essentially its bond market debut.

All four investment grade benchmark corporate bond deals that priced last week were from utilities. On Tuesday, Italian multi-services utility, Iren, and Dutch grid operator, Stedin, took the count to six.

Agencies from the Netherlands, France and Germany are set to come to market on Tuesday for short dated dollar deals.

Finnish property company, Mercada, was a lone issuer in the corporate bond market on Monday. Its €175m five year deal q was printed while issuers that completed roadshows last week paused.

CVC has made two unitranche loans in the Netherlands, to Voogd & Voogd and Berning, amid busy activity in leveraged debt markets of all kinds.

Innogy, the German utility split off from RWE in April 2016, on Wednesday announced it would be holding investor calls about a new benchmark 10 year debut green bond issue. Later in the day, Standard & Poor’s upgraded the issuer to BBB.

Issuers and syndicates in the corporate bond market are lining deals up for a four day week this week. The Columbus Day holiday in the US shouldn’t necessarily mean no deals in the European market, but a mixed tone to the secondary market means participants are erring on the side of caution.

ASR Nederland picked banks to arrange the sale of a restricted tier one (RT1) note in euros on Thursday, becoming the first insurance firm to look at issuing the rare debt format in a core currency.

Nationale-Nederlanden Bank (NN Bank) issued its first covered bond flat to fair value, yet still managed to achieve a subscription ratio higher than any other Dutch covered bond in at least five years.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) has appointed leads to market its first covered bond since the Greek sovereign crisis. Meanwhile, Nationale-Nederlanden (NN Bank) has signalled its intention to press ahead with its debut deal following its recent roadshow.

Heineken used the quieter end of the week in terms of issuance to price its second benchmark corporate bond issue of the year. The sixth benchmark issue of the year in Europe from a beer producer was the only deal in the market on Friday.