Société Générale SFH achieved an order book of more than Eu3.6bn today (Tuesday) on a Eu1.5bn five year issue that is being priced at 43bp over mid-swaps and is the first from the French bank under new legislation where it is utilising home loan backed securitisation notes as collateral.

In the hour and a half that books were open for, leads BBVA, Crédit Agricole, ING, SG and UniCredit took orders from “a good mix” of 149 investors, according to a syndicate official at one of the leads.

He said that the only negative to the trade was that some investors would be disappointed with their allocations from the Eu1.5bn size.

A syndicate official away from the leads was surprised that the issue was not sized larger.

“I’m very surprised that they don’t print Eu2bn when the book is at Eu3.6bn,” he said.

However, the lead syndicate banker said that Eu1.5bn was the maximum set by the issuer.

“With an order book of Eu3.6bn, it would have been wishful thinking to issue Eu2bn from a syndicate’s perspective,” he added.

The deal is SG’s first under new obligations à l’habitat legislation and the syndicate official said that issuing under the new legislation seemed to have only affected the trade positively.

“The strong order book shows me again that new French legal framework is applying to a very broad investor base,” he said.

Pricing was not simple, he added.

“It’s not easy because it’s still a new product and no one knows where this curve will land next to the old structure,” he said.

Pricing comparables included a five year BPCE five year deal from 3 May at 63bp over and a Société Générale SCF July 2016 deal, backed by public sector debt, trading at 28bp over mid-swaps.

“The RMBS-like collateral in the cover pool clearly did not affect the trade,” said a syndicate official away from the leads. “It’s the same as anything else.”