BondMarker voters awarded AfDB an average score of 8.3 across the five deal categories available for voting (timing, structure/maturity, pricing, quality of the investor book, performance) for a $2bn 2.625% March 2021 — the issuer’s third benchmark of $2bn or more.
The deal’s highest scoring categories were structure/maturity (8.6) and quality of the investor distribution (8.5).
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BMO Capital Markets, Nomura and TD Securities priced the deal at mid-swaps minus 1bp on March 14, after collecting $4.25bn of orders — the highest ever on an AfDB deal.
“Very tidy,” said a banker away from the deal at the time of pricing. “Took the right approach by being cautious with initial price thoughts — there’s a bit of dislocation between secondary levels with the swap spread moves, so while things are optically tight there you need to be careful about where you bring a primary deal. Got a nice big book, moved tighter from guidance, so ticked the main boxes.”
A hair’s breadth behind AfDB’s deal score was a €4bn five year from KfW. The German agency’s benchmark scored 8.28 on average with its highest score (8.63) in the timing category. The deal, which was led by HSBC, Société Générale and UniCredit, had a book of over €8.2bn and was priced 2bp inside guidance at mid-swaps minus 26bp.
The remaining deals of the week: a $1.5bn 2.75% March 2021 print from Agence Française de Developpement and a $3.25bn 2.75% March 2023 were very close together in scores — AFD clocked up an average score of 8.02 and ADB was awarded 7.95.
