KfW

For public sector issuers, niche currency deals have offered attractive opportunities for arbitrage funding, with spreads into euros and dollars spurring on demand this year. Meanwhile, strong investor appetite for green paper has seen niche shoots blossom throughout 2019. Frank Jackman reports

KfW has announced a smaller borrowing programme for next year, joining a number of other public sector borrowers also set to borrow less in 2020.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies in the middle of November.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

KfW returned to Polish zloty issuance last Friday after a 13 year absence from the market, as it looks to tap new sources of capital.

KfW’s first €STR bond hit the market on Wednesday. Although the German agency managed a tighter price than EIB’s first note in the format, it was not able to drum up the same level of demand.

All maturities are open for deals in the euro market, thanks to a widening in benchmark spreads over the past few weeks. SSA issuers are taking advantage of the conditions by issuing in a range of tenors.

KfW has mandated banks for its first €STR transaction as it looks to become the third public sector borrower to sell a bond linked to the new euro risk-free rate.

KfW’s inclusion of ESG ratings in a term sheet might seem a superficial step — just one more disclosure of another piece of publicly available data — but it is a step towards a more sensible system of socially responsible investment.

KfW returned to the euro market on Tuesday for a tap of its euro May 2027 green bond. The deal offered a small new issue concession at the final spread, as the euro SSA pipeline winds down in the final months of the year.

KfW was the only public sector borrower to sell a new issue in the primary syndicated bond market this week, as it raised $1bn with an intra-day trade ahead of the US Federal Reserve cut rates for a third time this year.

KfW was the only public sector borrower in the primary market on Monday, raising $1bn with a March 2021 intra-day trade which was priced with the same coupon as the World Bank’s 10 year dollar deal earlier this month.