CaixaBank outshone its peripheral peers by attracting Eu1.7bn of demand to a Eu1bn five year issue today (Wednesday), while apoBank built a book of over Eu900m for a rare Eu500m long five year Pfandbrief that bankers said was a good achievement after a long absence from the market.

The two deals today lifted euro benchmark supply for the week to Eu2.5bn, after Mediobanca and Yorkshire Building Society yesterday (Tuesday) each sold Eu500m deals, and syndicate officials said the demand today represented an improvement.

“Looking at the development of the books, today feels a firmer day than Tuesday,” said one.

CaixaBank leads CaixaBank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche and HSBC priced the Eu1bn five year cédulas hipotecarias at 43bp over mid-swaps, with books of around Eu1.7bn at the last update. The deal was launched with IPTs of the 45bp-47bp over mid-swaps area, before guidance was set at the 45bp area with books in excess of Eu1bn.

“They got the size, they tightened the pricing more than most have managed recently, and it’s one of the most oversubscribed deals we’ve seen in a while,” said a syndicate official at one of the leads. “It’s an all-round good result.”

The lead syndicate official said the result looked particularly impressive when compared against a Eu1bn five year Banco Sabadell issue that, at 48bp over mid-swaps, attracted Eu1.5bn of demand on Tuesday of last week (27 October) and was at the time described by bankers as one of the best peripheral deals of recent weeks.

“The key thing to note about this deal is it came 5bp inside of Sabadell and found more demand,” he said. “That reflects the issuer’s stronger credit profile.”

Syndicate officials said the deal came roughly flat to the Spanish sovereign, with the July 2020 Bono seen at a z-spread of 41bp-42bp this morning.

“For a while cédulas had been trading inside of the sovereign,” said the lead syndicate official. “We’ve seen that dynamic change recently and obviously that is supportive.”

He added that the deal offered a new issue premium of around 15bp-20bp, based on the issuer’s secondary curve.

Syndicate officials away from the leads agreed the deal had gone well.

“It looks a good execution,” said one. “A Eu1.7bn book is very decent, and while they paid up to get it the premium is only in line with those we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks.”

Another syndicate official said the deal had looked cheap at the IPTs stage, considering the credit.

“But I suppose they wanted to be sure of not coming inside the sovereign,” he said, “and in the end the premium, in the mid-teens, is nothing unusual.”

The new issue is CaixaBank’s second benchmark covered bond of the year, with its last deal a Eu1bn 10 year priced in March.

Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank’s (apoBank) Eu500m no-grow February 2021 issue was expected today after the issuer yesterday announced a mandate, having completed a European roadshow last week.

Leads Commerzbank, DZ, LBBW and Natixis launched the mortgage Pfandbrief this morning with IPTs of the mid to high single-digits through mid-swaps area, before moving to guidance of the minus 7bp area. The re-offer was then fixed at minus 8bp, before the book closed at over Eu900m, comprising 40 accounts.

“This is a very good achievement for what is their first deal since 2008,” said a syndicate official at one of the leads. “After a comprehensive roadshow this is a pleasing result.”

Syndicate officials away from the leads noted that the deal was priced 2bp-3bp wider than the last wave of five and six year German Pfandbriefe, which hit the market between the end of September and mid-October, in spite of also being AAA rated.

“That seems fair for a very rare name and what is in essence an inaugural deal,” said one. “They did not substantially move the pricing, but with something like this the priority is getting the deal done and establishing lines for the next one, while pricing is secondary.”