UK

The Bank of England’s stress tests of its eight major banks and building societies has not spooked covered bond investors, despite the near failures of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.

Daniel Loughney, covered bond portfolio manager at Alliance Bernstein in London, speaks to The Cover about the outlook for covered bonds.

Coventry Building Society returned to the covered bond market for the first time in three years to take advantage of better market conditions than those that prevailed mid-week, and execute a trade before Sunday’s Asset Quality Review and stress test results are out, which could potentially disrupt the broader FIG market. Though there was some sensitivity in the book, the small deal size meant it was able price 2bp inside the tight end of initial guidance, an achievement that would have been unlikely with a €1bn trade.

Nationwide Building Society’s third covered bond of the year had to offer an attractive new issue premium because there was considerable price sensitivity in the book. The deal illustrates that, despite a technical undersupply of covered bonds, there is a greater balance between supply and demand than perceived, especially for bonds ineligible for the European Central Bank’s purchase programme.

Goldman Sachs has not given up on its Fixed Income Global Structured Covered Obligation (Figsco). Despite bad publicity, the market has moved in Goldman’s favour since the deal was first announced.

Coventry Building Society mandated leads to run a roadshow for its first euro denominated covered bond since October 2011. The deal is expected to offer a small premium to top UK names and is therefore likely to attract strong demand.

New issue momentum picked up in the RMBS market this week as one Dutch deal was priced and another was announced, along with a sterling deal from a UK bank. However, pricing softened as euphoria over the ECB’s purchase programme began to wane.

Jez Walsh has left Royal Bank of Scotland where he had been in charge of covered bond syndication for 15 years. His departure follows a string of high profile exits from RBS’ covered bond team including Allen Rad, Christoph Anhamm, Frank Will and Jason Wolfe.

Greencoat UK Wind, one of a number of recently listed British renewable energy funds, is set to raise £100m that will refinance a bank facility used for the fund's recent acquisitions.

Abbey National returned to the euro covered bond market for the first time this year on Thursday, following the same dual tranche format that Nationwide and Helaba have successfully established. Though UK bonds are unlikely to be eligible for the European Central Bank’s forthcoming purchase programme, both tranches priced with a negligible new issue premium with well oversubscribed and granular demand.

Credit Suisse mandated leads for a euro benchmark on Wednesday. After roadshowing earlier this week, Santander UK’s subsidiary Abbey has held back from the market following the tragic news that the banking group’s executive chairman passed away on Tuesday.

The sterling FRN market picked up on Monday as Barclays was set to price the largest ever covered bond in the domestic currency and Danske Bank was poised to price a benchmark. The two borrowers follow Nordea Eiendomskreditt which attracted robust demand last week.