Commerzbank will be going on a one week roadshow starting next week to market an SME-backed structured covered bond and has mandated four banks in connection with the project, it announced today (Monday).

Barclays, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole and UniCredit have been mandated to arrange a series of investor meetings in the week of 14 January to introduce Commerzbank’s new programme. The announcement said that a capital market transaction may follow, subject to market conditions.

Commerzbank’s SME backed programme, set up outside Germany’s Pfandbrief framework, came to light when Fitch and Moody’s on 6 December announced provisional ratings, of AA and Aa2, respectively. Their rating reports were based on the assumption of a debut issue coming with a five year maturity.

A deal off Commerzbank’s programme would be the first structured SME backed covered bond to be launched by a major European bank.

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