German Sovereign

A quartet of public sector borrowers brought small dollar deals this week that were fine but unspectacular, which SSA bankers said was down to a confluence of factors. There are hopes that with the market likely quiet next week for the US mid-term elections and Federal Open Market Committee meeting, conditions could return to their best for the albeit limited funding windows left in 2018.

Public sector borrowers are taking different approaches to the MTN market as they look to see out the rest of the funding year.

A mix of political, economic and market forces is “shaping up to be a perfect storm” for the eurozone debt markets, investors have warned.

Österreichische Kontrollbank and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt priced well received dollar deals on Tuesday. The pipeline in the currency is building with Bank Nederlanse Gementeen and Swedish Export Credit Corporation having lined up three year trades.

KfW received a final book of over €12bn for a five year euro benchmark on Tuesday, while the City of Hamburg closed out its funding for the year with its longest outstanding bond. Finnvera will add to the euro SSA supply this week, after mandating banks for a short 10 year that is likely to be its final syndication of the year.

A funding official at KfW has switched to the corporate sector.

KfW mandated banks on Monday for the first euro benchmark in the public sector market from a supranational or agency in two weeks.

Italy’s government bonds rallied to their tightest spreads versus Bunds since the start of the month after S&P opted to hold its rating for the country at BBB, while moving its outlook to negative from stable last Friday. But while there may be some respite for Italy in the weeks ahead, Germany chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision on Monday to step down at the end of her term in 2021 has left analysts fretting about the overall path of the eurozone.

Österreichische Kontrollbank will complete its benchmark funding for the year with a no-grow $1bn five year. Meanwhile, Erste Abwicklungsanstalt has lined up its second dollar deal of the year in the three year part of the curve.

Rentenbank is looking to issue one more benchmark before the end of 2018 with what would be the agency’s third of the year.

Erste Group has arranged a Schuldschein via blockchain, through a platform it helped construct alongside Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric.

A three times subscribed deal by KfW this week showed that there is plenty of green demand for issuers looking to print in the format in the remainder of the year, as a fellow German agency moved forward with plans to bring a trade.