German Sovereign

L-Bank brought a novel approach to sell a two year dollar deal on Thursday that could help other borrowers navigate volatile markets, with investors invited to place bids for the trade over their desired level versus mid-swaps.

The State of North Rhine Westphalia (Land NRW) had to pay a large new issue premium on Thursday as it brought the first SSA deal of a volatile week.

KfW is exploring whether it needs to increase the size of its annual capital markets funding programme after outlining plans to expand its lending to help companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Union is set to make at least €25bn of budget funding available for sectors affected by the Covid-19 coronavirus, as its institutions join forces to tackle the economic impact of the outbreak. Rules on state aid and public finance will also be loosened, giving member states more room to launch fiscal stimulus measures.

A window for Kangaroo issuance opened this week, as a positive move in the Australian dollar/euro basis swap helped rouse a slumbering market that had not seen a deal for a fortnight. In spite of unstable conditions, SSAs entered the market on Monday and Tuesday, with a trio of regular borrowers tapping six lines for a combined A$575m ($364m).

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies at the start of March.

Two German states rebooted the primary SSA market on Tuesday with intraday deals at the opposite ends of the euro curve. The five year deal was almost two times covered but there were no book updates for the 15 year.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, February 24. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

By opening up its debut social bond to retail investors, Munich highlighted an often overlooked strength of the socially responsible investment (SRI) market. Distributed correctly, these funding tools demonstrate the true impact of ethical investing.

Société du Grand Paris hoovered up strong demand this week to sell the longest ever public syndicated green bond. The French agency was joined by three other public sector borrowers in raising socially responsible bonds this week, including the first European city to issue a social-labelled bond.

Société du Grand Paris impressed the SSA market on Tuesday with a series of superlatives. It sold its biggest ever bond with the longest ever maturity for a syndicated green bond in any asset class. The City of Munich hit another landmark with the first social bond from a European city.

Société du Grand Paris and the City of Munich will break new ground in the socially responsible bond market this week as the pipeline for green and social debt from public sector borrowers builds.