The top scoring deal overall was a euro print: European Investment Bank’s €5bn 0.25% October 2024. That deal achieved almost perfect scores across the five categories available for voting (timing, pricing, structure/maturity, quality of the investor distribution and performance), taking an average of 9.8.
Barclays, Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs and LBBW led the deal on March 1. Orders came close to €10bn and it was priced at mid-swaps minus 13bp — with price guidance starting at mid-swaps minus 11bp area. One banker off the deal at the time said it was “crazy good”.
An ultra-long print from European Financial Stability Facility and a 10 year from KfW followed closely behind EIB with 9.7 and 9.6 overall scores, respectively.
KfW’s €5bn 0.625% February 2027 achieved the highest scores for an agency deal in 2017. It was printed on February 14 by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and UniCredit. A banker away from the deal described it as “textbook”.
EFSF’s €3.5bn 1.8% July 2048 was part of a dual tranche effort printed on July 4 by Citi, Commerzbank and Société Générale.
In dollars, Development Bank of Japan had the highest overall score of the year with an $800m 2.625% September 2027. That deal had an overall score of 9.2. It was priced on August 23 and was led by Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi and Daiwa.
It was followed in the dollar charts by a pair of Asian Development Bank prints: a $1.5bn 2.5% November 2027 and a $4bn 1.625% May 2020 — that had scores of 9.15 and 9.13, respectively.
One of the best ranking sovereign deals in 2017 was a 100 year effort from Austria. That clocked up scores over 9.5 in the timing, structure/maturity and pricing categories. Its average score overall was 9.2. That deal was led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Erste Group Bank, Goldman Sachs, NatWest Markets and Société Générale on September 12.
A £2bn inflation-linked tap from the UK DMO, which was priced on February 21, matched Austria’s 9.2 average score. The deal, led by Barclays, Lloyds Bank, NatWest Markets and UBS, marked a record low yield on a UK syndication at the time of pricing: minus 1.5235%. The book size was also a record for the sovereign at the time. The sovereign beat that record in another reopening of the line in September. That deal took another high score of 9 on BondMarker.
Province of Alberta’s sterling debut — a £650m 1% November 2021 — was the highest ranking sub-sovereign deal scored on BondMarker in 2017: taking an average of 9. It was led by HSBC and RBC Capital Markets on February 22. A banker off the mandate called it a “cracking trade”.
BondMarker scores are a quantitative complement to GlobalCapital’s industry-leading bond comments. They are produced by crowd-sourcing scores of deals from market participants. In 2017, GlobalCapital published scores on 134 bonds on BondMarker.
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