The Netherlands

NN Bank used a quiet market this week to launch the first deal from its new soft bullet covered bond programme. The inaugural deal carried an ‘attractive’ spread and was more than three times subscribed at final terms.

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.

Issuers are struggling to obtain the necessary internal approvals to issue covered bonds, given how expensive the instruments are compared to the European Central Bank's Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO III).

Coöperatieve Rabobank launched a 10 year covered bond at a spread of 7bp over mid-swaps this week, leaving a small new issue concession for investors. The deal also underlined the recent recovery of credit spreads amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephan Gimpel is leaving Citi to pursue an opportunity in fintech, after 14 years in the US bank’s debt capital markets business.

The Dutch State Treasury Agency has announced that it will reopen its inaugural green bond via auction next Tuesday as it looks to bring the trade closer to a benchmark size.

Finland’s Municipality Finance returned to the domestic New Zealand dollar bond market on Friday after a long absence, to raise its largest Kauri bond since 2008.

Covered bond spreads in euros have already recovered more than half of the widening that they suffered through March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic. Market participants are now scrambling to find the bargains as returns vanish once again.

Banks are likely to consider unusual issuance windows this year given the disruption caused by the coronavirus crisis. They could even be hard at work during the summer months, according to deal arrangers.

Achmea Bank issued the first conditional pass-through (CPT) covered bond since October 2019 on Tuesday with the juicy spread ensuring the most oversubscribed order book ever for this structure, enabling the deal to be priced flat to fair value.

Basic-Fit, Europe’s largest operator of fitness clubs, raised €133.3m through a sale of new shares on Monday night. The capital raised gives the company a platform to take advantage of growth opportunities that may arise from the pandemic.

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, June 1. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.