Aegon attracted around Eu1.7bn of orders for its second covered bond today (Wednesday), a Eu500m seven year CPT, benefiting from supportive conditions to outdo its debut, while LBBW returned to dollars with a $650m deal. SR-Boligkreditt is to roadshow in Europe.

Deals today from Aegon and Caja Rural Castilla La Mancha (see separate article) are the first benchmark euro covered bonds since Wednesday of last week, when DG Hypothekenbank sold a Eu500m eight year. Issuance was interrupted by a public holiday on Monday, while financial institutions also showed a preference for senior and subordinated debt issuance over covered bonds.

“We had a slow start to the week, but everyone has been kept busy this morning,” said a syndicate official.

Aegon leads ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Deutsche, HSBC and RBS launched the Dutch issuer’s Eu500m no-grow seven year deal with guidance of the 18bp area, before revising guidance to the 15bp area, plus or minus 1bp, will price within range, on the back of books over Eu1.4bn. The spread was then fixed at 14bp, with the book closing at around Eu1.7bn, comprising around 80 accounts.

Bankers said the deal offered a new issue premium of around 2bp, seeing Aegon’s December 2020s at 8bp, mid, and Van Lanschot March 2023s at 12bp, and said this was roughly in line with the premiums offered by the last wave of supply.

“It is a fantastic result,” said a syndicate official at one of the leads. “Aegon unfortunately didn’t have the most overwhelming debut last year, because market conditions were at the time substantially worse, but this is a fine return.”

The deal is Aegon’s second benchmark covered bond, following a debut, Eu750m five year issue in November.

Another banker at the leads noted that the seven year deal extends the issuer’s curve, and is as long as any of the CPT issues sold by its Dutch peers.

He also noted that the level of oversubscription was much higher than for Aegon’s Eu750m debut, which attracted some Eu1bn of orders. He said this was testament to three factors: the strength of the market; CPTs becoming even more recognised among investors; and the deal having been announced yesterday, thereby allowing investors to prepare for the new issue and a move straight to guidance, which he said was helpful in the busy market.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg leads Goldman Sachs, LBBW, RBC and UBS launched the three year mortgage Pfandbrief issue after the US open yesterday (Tuesday) with initial price thoughts of the 55bp over mid-swaps area. The spread was then fixed at 51bp and the size set at $650m (Eu574m), with the book closing at over $1.3bn.

The Eurodollar Reg S issue is the first benchmark US dollar covered bond from a European issuer to be sold this year. LBBW launched a $500m issue in February 2015 that it a month later increased by $250m.

Norway’s SR-Boligkreditt this morning announced a European roadshow, starting on Friday, ahead of a potential euro benchmark issue. Citi, Commerzbank, HSBC, LBBW and Nomura have the mandate.