New Zealand’s ANZ National has launched an inaugural euro covered bond, while Austria’s HYPO NOE is taking indications of interest for a new issue as the primary market remains supportive, according to syndicate bankers. National Bank of Canada tapped the 144A dollar market yesterday.

“Things are alive and kicking,” said a syndicate official away from today’s deals. “The pipeline is not visible but it’s there.”

Another syndicate banker said he was pleased with the development in the primary market.

“The good mood continues despite indices not necessarily being well oriented today,” he said, adding that the market had brushed off the “potential bad news” of Slovakia’s parliament rejecting an increase of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) yesterday (Wednesday). The country is expected to approve the EFSF at a second attempt soon.

He said he could imagine some issuers getting picky given that the market had experienced a few days of stability, even improvement.

There was strong activity in the French segment in the secondary market, he added, with good buying interest for tier one issuers, where flows are concentrated, but also narrowing of spreads for lower quality issuers.

HYPO NOE Group is taking indications of interest for a three year public sector backed issue on the basis of initial price thoughts of the low 60s over mid-swaps via Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, and UniCredit. The deal has been capped at Eu500m.

ANZ National is pricing a Eu500m minimum five year covered bond via ANZ, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and UBS.

The deal was marketed at the 95bp over mid-swaps area, a level that one syndicate official away from the leads said surprised him as it seemed wide of where he had understood New Zealand issuers were hoping to price, namely close to the Nordic and Dutch covered bond curves.

However, he suggested that the lack of a domestic bid prevented the high quality of the collateral and parent banks from being fully reflected in spreads.

ANZ National went on a roadshow in June, but then put back its plans to issue amid poor market conditions.

National Bank of Canada yesterday (Wednesday) sold its second US dollar 144A benchmark covered bond, a $1.4bn five year sold at 104.5bp over US Treasuries via Barclays, Citi, National Bank Financial and Royal Bank of Canada. A syndicate official away from the leads put the re-offer spread at 72bp over mid-swaps.

NBC made its covered bond debut in January, with a $1bn three year re-offered at 62.2bp over US Treasuries.