A Eu500m five year covered bond for Bank of Queensland that had been widely expected to hit the market today (Tuesday) will now emerge tomorrow or potentially even later, according to the Australian debutant’s leads, with some investors requiring more time to assess the issuer.

After holding a European roadshow to introduce its new conditional pass-through (CPT) programme last week, Bank of Queensland announced a mandate for a Eu500m no-grow five year issue yesterday (Monday), via BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, ING, NAB and UBS.

Some bankers at the leads suggested yesterday that the deal was set to be launched today, subject to market conditions. It did not emerge this morning, however, and syndicate bankers at the leads said they are still preparing the trade.

“Since this is an inaugural one, some people needed slightly more time to go through the credit work and so on,” said one. “It is still ongoing.

“We can’t promise that it will emerge tomorrow, but we will see.”

The deal will be the first CPT covered bond from Australia, and bankers had suggested that finding a price for the debut would therefore be particularly challenging, with covered bond investors having become increasingly price sensitive over the last week.

“Given that they announced the mandate yesterday, everyone was prepared for BOQ to be on screens today,” said a syndicate banker away from the leads. “For whatever reason, they have decided not to move, so now we must presume that they’ll have another go tomorrow.

“Maybe they weren’t satisfied with the indications they got, or maybe the feedback they received was blurred and so they are not quite sure yet where to put their first pricing spot on the curve. It is not a straightforward project.”

Bankers said the wider market remained supportive today, and noted that a Eu500m seven year covered bond for Leeds Building Society, which attracted some Eu650m of orders, showed that demand was still sufficient to get deals comfortably subscribed.

“I am still not too worried about the market,” said one. “Conditions remain firm – my main worry is that the pipeline is starting to look empty.”