BMO attracted around Eu2.1bn of orders for a Eu1.5bn five year issue today (Tuesday) that offered a slim premium, according to bankers, while CIBC priced a A$400m five year FRN. Eika is expected with a Eu500m seven year tomorrow and The Mortgage Society of Finland will roadshow from Monday.

Bank of Montreal’s deal is the Canadian issuer’s second benchmark covered bond of the year, following another Eu1.5bn five year issue on 7 January, which attracted Eu2.25bn of orders.

“Today’s deal has gone very, very well,” said a syndicate official away from BMO’s leads. “They’ve come back to the market after four months to do a second trade of the same size and the same tenor, and taken about the same amount of demand.”

Leads BMO, Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank and UBS launched the five year issue with guidance of the 18bp over mid-swaps area. Guidance was then revised to the 16bp area, before the deal was re-offered at 14bp. The size was then fixed at Eu1.5bn (C$2.22bn), with the book closing at around Eu2.1bn.

Some syndicate officials said the deal offered a new issue premium of around 2bp based on the bid side of Canadian issuers’ secondary curves, seeing BMO August 2020s at 11bp, bid, Royal Bank of Canada March 2021s at 10bp, and Toronto-Dominion January 2021s at 12bp.

“It is a fairly aggressive price in that it doesn’t leave much premium on the table,” said a syndicate official. “But it is not so far out of line, it is OK and the market is there – so why not go for it?”

Another banker, however, said the new issue premium was closer to 5bp based on the mid side of BMO’s curve, seeing the issuer’s August 2020s at 7bp, mid, and September 2022s at 11bp.

“I’m not surprised this has gone well at this level,” he said. “It’s a good price and the five year maturity is still an extremely popular one for this sort of deal.”

Syndicate officials said the spread of 14bp was equivalent to a spread of 73bp over dollar Libor, which they estimated was 2bp-3bp inside where an equivalent US dollar-denominated trade would have been priced.

Fellow Canadian issuers TD and RBC each sold $1.75bn five year issues on 7 and 14 March, respectively, with bankers noting at the time that the dollar market was offering funding levels on a par with euros for international issuers.

“I don’t think there’s anything that I’d read into the relative attractiveness of either euros or dollars from BMO’s deal,” said a syndicate official away from the leads, “other than that euros continues to be a good option.”

In the Australian dollar market, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) leads ANZ, CIBC, HSBC and NAB today priced the Canadian bank’s five year floating rate note at 110bp over three month BBSW and set the size at A$400m (Eu265m, C$393m), with the book closing at over A$500m.

The deal was launched yesterday (Monday) with guidance of the 110bp area.

Eika Boligkreditt announced a mandate for a Eu500m (Nkr4.69bn) no-grow seven year covered bond today, with leads Commerzbank, Danske, LBBW, Natixis and Swedbank. A syndicate official at one of the leads said the deal is expected to be launched tomorrow, subject to market conditions.

The announcement follows a Eu1.5bn seven year issue for fellow Norwegian issuer DNB Boligkreditt yesterday. Eika Boligkreditt’s last euro benchmark covered bond was a Eu500m six year issue in October.

The Mortgage Society of Finland yesterday (Monday) announced a mandate for a European roadshow ahead of a potential debut euro-denominated covered bond, a Eu250m issue. The roadshow will commence on Monday (18 April) and conclude Thursday, 22 April. Danske, Nordea, LBBW and Swedbank have the mandate.

The deal had been expected after the Finnish issuer finalised its new mortgage covered bond programme on 1 April, after having received a preliminary AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s.

Syndicate officials said a debut euro-denominated issue for Leeds Building Society is also expected this week, after the UK issuer completed a roadshow.