Crédit Agricole added Eu275m to an outstanding Eu1.25bn March 2017 covered bond today (Friday) after setting a minimum size of Eu125m.

Crédit Agricole was the sole lead on the tap for Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH and opened books at 0930 London time and closed them at 1100 CET after building a book of about Eu300m.

A syndicate official from the bank said the issuer launched the tap on the back of a reverse inquiry, also accommodating some shorts in the market.

The tap was priced at 140bp over mid-swaps, on the tighter side of initial price thoughts of 140bp-145bp over.

“We are paying a very limited new issue premium,” said the syndicate official at Crédit Agricole.

He said the bank paid a new issue premium of less than 5bp, with the outstandings trading at 138bp over before the tap was announced.

A syndicate official away from the lead said today was a very difficult market environment, but “if you have solid interest, then you can tap and see if you find additional interest”.

He did not expect other issuers to follow Crédit Agricole’s lead and tap the market, because of the poor state of the market.

“We’ll see even more accounts dropping out of the market with the holidays,” he added.