Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) has mandated Barclays, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and Helaba to lead manage a five year euro benchmark public sector-backed covered bond, which is expected to be launched early next week.

There are not yet any official price thoughts for the deal. However, a syndicate official at one of the leads cited two outstanding Helaba bonds as comparables, a June 2018 and an April 2019 trading at minus 11bp and minus 18bp, respectively.

“Market conditions are good,” he said. “Things are rock solid and people are cash rich, looking for ways to put money to work. It’s easy.”

Helaba’s mandate is just one that is set for next week, with market participants expecting to see further deals, while at least one roadshow mandate is due to be announced.

Supply this week was confined to just Eu1bn in the form of Eu500m deals for Kommunalkredit Austria and NordLB, although the activity marked a pick-up from the previous week when no new benchmarks were launched.

Helaba’s last visit to the market was with a Eu250m increase to a December 2017 mortgage-backed Pfandbrief on 9 January, which was priced at a spread of 6bp through mid-swaps.