Alpha Bank could issue a euro benchmark covered bond as soon as next week, having today (Friday) announced a mandate for a roadshow starting on Monday. The deal will be the third public benchmark from Greece since the market reopened last year, but will differ in maturity and format.

Alpha Bank is the only one of the big four Greek banks to have not issued a benchmark-sized covered bond following the market’s reopening by National Bank of Greece in October.

The issuer announced this morning that it has mandated Barclays, Citi, Commerzbank, JP Morgan and NatWest to arrange a European roadshow commencing on Monday, ahead of a potential euro benchmark covered bond issue that is expected to have a maturity of four or five years.

The roadshow could conclude on either Tuesday or Wednesday, according to a banker at one of the leads, and the deal could be launched either next week or the following week, depending on the feedback from investors and working around an ECB governing council meeting on Thursday – which is expected to narrow the window for issuance next week.

“Both options are on the plate,” he said.

Following NBG’s EUR750m three year reopener on 10 October – the first Greek bank bond since the Greek debt crisis – Eurobank Ergasias issued a EUR500m three year covered bond on 24 October, while Piraeus on the same date priced a EUR500m five year that was mostly privately placed with European institutions.

The public deals for NBG and Eurobank were both marketed on a yield basis, and priced at 2.90% and 2.98%, respectively.

Speculation that Alpha Bank was preparing to enter the covered bond market increased in November, when Moody’s assigned the issuer a B3 provisional rating for a soft bullet covered bond programme.

Moody’s today assigned the issuer a B3 provisional rating for covered bonds to be issued under the Alpha Bank AE – Direct Issuance Global Mortgage Covered Bonds programme, assuming an issuance size of EUR500m in its analysis. Alpha’s covered bonds are also rated B by Fitch.

Alpha Bank’s covered bond rating matches those of NBG, Eurobank and Piraeus, although the other Greek issuers each used programmes with conditional pass-through structures when returning to the market last year.

The ECB announced in November that, as of 1 February, CPT programmes of issuers that do not have a first-best investment grade rating will be ineligible for its covered bond purchase programme, affecting the programmes of NBG and Eurobank.

Greek and Cypriot covered bonds that are rated below investment grade are currently eligible for CBPP3 provided they meet additional criteria, including a minimum OC commitment of 25%.

It was announced yesterday that Alpha Bank had signed up to the Covered Bond Label, becoming the first Greek issuer to do so.

The new issue will be Alpha Bank’s inaugural benchmark covered bond, but the bank does have two covered bonds outstanding, a EUR5m issue that will mature next Tuesday and a EUR1bn issue that will mature in October.