DZ Bank

Syndicate bankers are scrambling to make sense of the covered bond market, where sentiment has been changeable in recent weeks. Amid volatility and small issuance windows, sustainable bonds have proven a safe strategy to ensure successful deals.

The 15 year tenor is the flavour of the week in the SSA market. Three issuers have mandated for deals at the tenor so far, following on from NRW.Bank’s successful trip to the maturity on Tuesday.

Berlin Hyp left ‘a little bit on the table’ with its new green covered bond on Tuesday. The trade was followed by deal announcements from Kookmin Bank and Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt, both looking to issue in sustainable format.

NN Bank unveiled plans on Monday to issue its first covered bond from its newly published soft-bullet programme. At the same time, Berlin Hyp has mandated lead managers for the sale of a new green covered bond.

Gunvor, the Swiss commodity trader, has signed a €450m sustainability-linked facility, pushing its environmental, social and governance-linked bank lines signed this year up to almost €1.1bn-equivalent.

DZ Hyp managed to attract a healthy order book for a €1bn eight year deal issued on Wednesday, a day before a more narrowly subscribed €1bn 10 year from UniCredit’s German subsidiary, HVB.

Green bonds made up the majority of the supply in the euro bank bond market on Thursday, with Hypo Noe and Santander capitalising on strong demand for the asset class.

DZ Hyp managed to raise €1bn of eight year Pfandbrief funding flat to its curve on Wednesday. The deal contrasted with one from Axa Banque SFH, which paid a much larger premium for a €500m 15 year, possibly due to far higher French supply this year and confusion with Axa Banque Europe SCF, which has already entered the market four times this year.

Sovereign, supranational and agency bond issuers are mobilising their resources to support the fight against Covid-19. The below table details the bonds they have issued, specifically in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Axa Banque SFH mandated leads on Tuesday for its first deal of the year, a €500m 15 year, while DZ Hyp has appointed leads for a benchmark eight year Pfandbrief.

In mid-May GlobalCapital hosted a specially convened panel of investment bankers, investors and a market infrastructure provider to discuss how capital markets have reacted to the coronavirus crisis and how they might play a role in the recovery of the global economy. The discussion, which took place remotely over Zoom, was the opening panel discussion of the Global Borrowers & Investors Forum, which this year is being brought to you in virtual form via a special digital publication on our website.

DZ Bank has signed up to the leading digital platform in the Schuldschein market, VC Trade. The German bank brings roughly 850 affiliated co-operative banks with it, which VC Trade’s founders believe is a game changer.