The low score tallied with comments from bankers away from the deal directly after pricing, who said that the marketed level of 3bp area over mid-swaps had been too tight and had led to a slow book build.
The deal’s highest rating was for structure/maturity, which drew a 7.17.
The overall average of 6.53 made it the poorest performing Kommuninvest deal on BondMarker this year. The Swedish agency’s other three benchmarks scored more than a point higher — a $1bn April 2021 in January hit 7.92, a $1bn March 2021 in May scored 7.70 and a $2.5bn October 2020 in June got 7.73.
On-looking bankers did say at the time of pricing that the trade was typical of a market that was not “as hot as it was a month ago”.
One positive knock-on effect from the deal is that it provided a useful price comparison for Kommunalbanken, which printed a $1.5bn October 2021 last week.
“We didn’t really look at concessions by the virtue of Kommuninvest having just printed,” said one of KBN’s leads. “That was all the reference points we needed. They started at 3bp area and ended at plus 3bp and were trading a fraction tighter this week. As we wanted to aim for 3bp with KBN, we felt starting at 4bp area was the best way to get there.”
KBN’s deal, as well as benchmarks from the AFD, ESM, FADE, KfW, Ontario and UK, are available for scoring on BondMarker until Thursday at 6pm.
