Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) launched its first benchmark covered bond in some 10 years this (Wednesday) morning, a Eu500m six year mortgage Pfandbrief, with syndicate officials noting that it had positioned itself well versus more established names.

The issuer went out with its deal today after having completed a series of investor meetings in Germany on Monday. The deal is the German issuer’s first benchmark covered bond since 2006, with its last having matured in March 2014.

Leads Commerzbank, Deka, LBBW and WGZ announced the Eu500m no-grow six year mortgage Pfandbrief with guidance of the 2bp over mid-swaps area. The spread was then set at flat, with the book closing at “well above” Eu800m with almost 50 accounts.

“For a very rare issuer, this looks like a good result,” said a syndicate official away from the leads. “I think they can be pleased with that price.”

A syndicate official at one of the leads said fair value for the new issue was around minus 4bp-3bp, seeing Sparkasse KölnBonn March 2022s at minus 6bp, mid, and recent German 2022-2023 paper all quoted between minus 4bp and plus 1bp.

“That premium is fully in line with some well established issuers, which is a good result,” he added.

Some syndicate officials also noted that the new issue was priced 1bp inside a Eu1bn six year issue for UniCredit, which was priced at 1bp over mid-swaps yesterday, and said this was appropriate given the larger size of the more established issuer’s deal – which was its largest Pfandbrief since 2011 – even if Hamburger Sparkasse’s deal could be considered effectively a debut.

“This is pretty tight to UniCredit for a less familiar issuer, but if you look at things like the mortgage pools, they are fairly comparable, and the smaller size probably justifies the tighter spread,” said one syndicate official away from the leads.

The syndicate officials said the difference in pricing could also reflect UniCredit’s lower issuer ratings of Baa1/BBB/A- (Moody’s/S&P/Fitch) versus A+/A (Fitch/DBRS) for Hamburger Sparkasse.

The lead syndicate official said the order book almost solely comprised German accounts, with some small orders from the Nordics and France.