Austria

Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederoesterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) announced a mandate for a new trade on Tuesday, hoping that the rare product type and a fixed deal size will attract investors.

Austria’s Ministry of Finance will finally set out draft proposals to harmonise the country’s three covered bond legal frameworks early in 2019 after years of deliberations. And, with the introduction of new measures that bring the unified law into line with best practice, rating upgrades are likely.

The Republic of Austria has reduced its benchmark government bond funding target for 2018 by 15%, mainly due to a further downpayment from the sale of bad bank assets.

Vienna Insurance Group is redeeming a legacy tier one note next month, but does not intend to replace it with a restricted tier one (RT1) bond. Once one Austrian or German insurer issues, others will follow, according to CreditSights.

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) attracted more demand for its €500m nine year than Hypo Vorarlberg Bank (Vorhyp) did for its €500m eight year this week, even though the Austrian deal benefits from greater scarcity value.

Austrian machinery maker Andritz has launched a €300m four tranche Schuldschein, with tranches of seven years and 7.75 years. A banker said the intention was to see if lenders could be lured further out along the maturity curve.

Hypo Vorarlberg (Vorhyp) and Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) have mandated leads respectively for eight and nine year €500m no-grow covered bonds.

Germany may have been kicked out of the FIFA World Cup but they still know how to issue a good Pfandbrief, according to a German lead manager who worked on HSH Nordbank’s five year Pfandbrief that was launched on Thursday alongside an Austrian deal — Raiffeisenlandesbank (RLB) Oberösterreich’s 10 year, which also achieved an excellent reception.

Barclays is working hard to expand its equity capital markets business in Northern Europe, in a bid to capitalise on what it expects to be a busy few years for the region.

There was a smattering of sterling deals from public sector borrowers this week, as the biggest issuer in the currency — the UK Debt Management Office — provided details for its next syndication.

Erste Group and Caffil found good demand for their covered bonds that were respectively issued in the six and 20 year tenors on Tuesday. But neither deal was straightforward, according to leads, who noted that overnight market volatility had weighed on sentiment.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV sold the first corporate hybrid deal in four weeks on Tuesday when it sold a €500m perpetual bond with a non-call six year structure which was more than three times subscribed.