La Banque Postale today (Tuesday) priced the tightest ever non-German benchmark covered bond, a Eu500m seven year at 12bp through mid-swaps, while Abbey drew a Eu2.1bn bid for a Eu1bn seven year and Helaba attracted sufficient orders for a tap to double a 2023 issue to Eu1bn.

La Banque Postale Home Loan SFH leads HSBC, ING, LBBW and Natixis launched the Eu500m no-grow seven year deal with guidance of the 9bp through mid-swaps area. The re-offer was set at 12bp through, making it the tightest ever non-German benchmark covered bond, surpassing a Société Générale SFH Eu500m five year priced at minus 10bp in February.

Bankers said the deal offered no new issue premium, with a syndicate official at one of the leads seeing the issuer’s September 2020 paper trading at minus 14bp and January 2024s at minus 12bp. The pricing was also only a couple of basis points back of recent German benchmarks, with a Deutsche Hypo Eu500m seven year having come at 14bp through yesterday (Monday), for example.

The leads built an order book of Eu1.8bn with 65 accounts for the deal, which was the issuer’s first with a soft bullet structure.

“It went very, very well,” said the lead syndicate official.

A banker away from the deal agreed.

“It is a very good print,” he said. “It came much tighter than I expected.”

La Banque Postale’s last benchmark was a Eu750m 10 year in January 2014.

Abbey National Treasury Services leads ABN Amro, Natixis, Nomura, Santander and UniCredit launched the Eu1bn seven year deal with initial price thoughts of the 5bp over mid-swaps area, then moved to guidance of the 2bp over area. The re-offer was set at 1bp on the back of a Eu2.1bn order book.

The deal is only the second euro benchmark from a UK issuer this year, following a Eu750m 12 year deal from Nationwide Building Society on 18 March.

“It’s good to see a UK name come to the market,” said a syndicate official away from the leads. “There is a demand for UK paper and they seem to have tapped into that.”

Noting that the issuer’s November 2020 and September 2024 paper is trading at flat, syndicate officials away from the deal suggested the new issue offered a 1bp new issue premium.

“It was a very clean execution and well-received,” said one.

Meanwhile, Helaba doubled in size a Eu500m 10 year deal initially sold in June 2013. Leads Citi, Commerzbank, Danske, DZ, Helaba, HSBC, RBS, SG and UniCredit launched the deal with guidance of the 15bp through mid-swaps area, before setting the re-offer at minus 17bp and building a final book of over Eu900m with over 30 accounts. This allowed them to enlarge the tap beyond the issuer’s minimum size of Eu250m.

Seeing the outstanding trading at minus 19bp, bid, pre-announcement, a syndicate official at one of the leads said the tap offered only a modest new issue premium.

A banker away from the deal agreed.

“It’s a strong result for them,” he said. “The size and the pricing are both very good.”

Bankers said they did not expect more euro mandates to be announced until after an ECB meeting tomorrow (Wednesday).