The Netherlands

Rabobank’s global head of long term funding, Sjaak-Jan Baars speaks to GlobalCapital about the benefits of covered bond funding, the bank’s expected frequency in the market, the outlook for spreads and prospects for green bonds.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank on Thursday became the latest issuer to tap into a hot summer market for dollars, increasing a tap from its initial size while printing flat to its curve.

Aegon, the insurance firm, said on Thursday that it would raise senior debt in the third quarter of 2017 to pre-fund a €1bn capital injection into its Dutch unit.

Aegon has agreed to sell the independent financial advisory group Unirobe Meeùs Groep (UMG), boosting its Solvency II ratio by six percentage points ahead of announcing a “comprehensive plan” for its capital position in the Netherlands this week.

Public sector issuers are taking advantage of strong summer conditions in the dollar market to bring green and arbitrage-style deals, with more issuance expected next week.

The dollar market is grinding on throughout the summer, with public sector borrowers pushing out deals at the short end, although none have been in benchmark size this week. Two issuers launched transactions on Tuesday with a third slated to follow on Wednesday.

Senior bonds issued by Vivat, the Dutch insurer, attracted buying interest this week following fresh reports about the firm’s China-based parent company.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank this week became the first European SSA to print in the Swiss franc market since 2015, followed by Municipality Finance two days later. Favourable moves in the euro/Swiss franc basis, alongside rising Swiss interest rates, opened a window for old borrowers to return.

Forecasts that Europe’s corporate bond market would be all but closed for the summer this week were belied by Unilever on Monday when it launched its biggest-ever euro bond and took some of the tightest corporate pricing ever.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has become the first European SSA to print in the Swiss market since 2015, citing a favourable move in the euro/Swiss franc basis swap as a reason for the return.

Eurofins Scientific and Thermo Fisher Scientific both held investor update calls on Monday — and both announced deals on Tuesday. The science double bill proved no horror story, though, with investors clamouring for unrated Eurofins as well as Thermo Fisher’s jumbo multi-tranche deal.

The bank wants to grow its franchise, but may have to take its M&A joint venture with Case a step further to achieve its goals, writes David Rothnie.