HSH Nordbank launched a Eu500m five year deal today (Thursday) that drew Eu1.2bn of orders, while a Crédit Agricole Eu1.5bn five year issue attracted Eu4bn of demand.

Leads Commerzbank, DZ Bank, HSH, RBS and UniCredit started taking IoIs this morning at high 30s over mid-swaps on HSH’s no-grow transaction, before opening books at 35bp over area, and fixing the spread at 33bp.

Books were above Eu1.2bn with more than 90 accounts.

Syndicate officials away from the deal said an Aa1 rating on review for downgrade for Moody’s for the mortgage Pfandbriefe had not affected the issuer’s transaction.

“It’s a great result for HSH,” said one. “It can be a difficult name, but a book of over Eu1bn is a fantastic result.

“This just shows the strength of the market.”

Another said the issue had achieved strong traction because of it being a Pfandbrief and offering an attractive headline spread.

He noted that it was difficult to find pricing comparables.

“HSH is obviously an infrequent issuer,” he said, “but we were seeing the last transaction from them, a July 2013, in the mid-teens.

“It’s also difficult because for smaller issuers these bonds tend to get squeezed so it’s difficult to get fair value.”

Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH came to the market via leads Deutsche, Crédit Agricole, ING and Natixis.

The leads built a book of Eu4bn in 40 minutes, between opening at 0900 CET and closing at 0940 CET.

“With a book of Eu4bn, it clearly went very well,” said a syndicate official at one the leads.

Initial price thoughts on the transaction were announced yesterday afternoon at 70bp, before books were officially opened at the guidance of the 65bp-70bp over, and the spread was fixed at 63bp.

Another syndicate official at one of the leads compared the deal with an outstanding March 2017 from the issuer at 65bp mid. He added that the deal had gone extremely quickly.

A syndicate banker away from the deal said there was a very strong response to the deal, and the pricing was fair.

“They probably started off with a new issue premium of 10bp when they started at 70bp,” he said. “The guidance incorporated 65bp, so I think it was fair.”

Another syndicate official away from the leads said the level looked spot-on. He said there was no new issue concession given the extension of the curve, putting the March 2017 for Crédit Agricole at 60bp mid.

“Given the context of the market, given the lack of paper in the secondary market, the pricing seems very fair,” he said.