The covered bond primary market was primed for a busy week this (Monday) morning, with DNB issuing a Eu1.25bn five year, Ålandsbanken, HSH and SCBC announcing mandates, and others possibly following up roadshows with deals this week ahead of CBPP3 details on Thursday.

After only one benchmark, from Commerzbank, last week, when many market participants were at industry events in Vienna, activity has picked up again, with the Norwegian deal, three mandates and deals for Belfius, Caisse central Desjardins du Quebec and Hypo Tirol potentially emerging soon with the issuers having been on roadshows.

Swedish Covered Bond Corporation (SCBC) has mandated Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Danske Bank and RBS for a seven year euro benchmark. It will be the issuer’s first euro benchmark since a Eu1bn five year issue in April 2011.

Germany’s HSH Nordbank has mandated Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank, Deutsche, HSH Nordbank and NordLB for a Eu500m no-grow seven year mortgage Pfandbrief that is expected to be tomorrow’s business. It sold a Eu500m five year mortgage Pfandbrief at 11bp over mid-swaps on 10 July.

Finland’s Ålandsbanken is taking indications of interest for a four year euro sub-benchmark at initial price thoughts of the mid-swaps plus 20bp area via leads Commerzbank and Danske, with official launch expected tomorrow.

DNB Boligkreditt hit the market with its first euro benchmark since November 2013 this morning, with leads BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and UniCredit going out with price guidance of mid-swaps minus 2bp to flat. After taking some Eu1.5bn of orders they revised guidance to the minus 2bp area, before fixing the spread at minus 3bp on the back of some Eu1.75bn of orders and ultimately setting the size at Eu1.25bn.

Some syndicate officials away from the leads said that the outcome was fair.

“It’s a decent result,” said one.

He put the minus 3bp level 1bp back from secondaries. He said that at first glance it was interesting to see DNB come at that level when Compagnie de Financement Foncer could issue a five year at minus 5bp three weeks ago, but he said that DNB tends to trade a touch back from some of the tightest Nordic names.

Another syndicate official suggested that if DNB had not been seeking such a large issue it might have been able to come at minus 4bp. He saw the re-offer level a touch wide of secondaries, saying DNB June 2019s had last week been trading at around minus 4bp on the bid side and its 2021s at around minus 4bp.

Another banker said that while the outcome was good, DNB might have hoped for a larger deal or tighter level. However, he noted that some recent issues were trading a little wider than their re-offers, with a Commerzbank and Danske five year deals each 1bp wider, bit at minus 4bp and minus 1bp, respectively.

“This demonstrates that people are not willing to accept just any spread that is handed out at the moment,” he said.

The previous syndicate official said that the market is still very solid for covered bonds.

“We had a little volatility in wider markets at the end of last week,” he added, “that is clearly a positive for low beta stuff and high quality names. The market is still one way.”

Issuers are expected to aim to come ahead of an expected announcement of further details from the European Central Bank of further details of its third covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3) on Thursday afternoon, and there is also a German public holiday on Friday.

This could include Hypo Tirol, which is concluding a roadshow today. It is planning a Eu300m debut public sector covered bond via Crédit Agricole and LBBW. Belfius and CCDQ finish their marketing exercises later in the week, and are considered more likely to issue next week.