Berlin Hyp is set to issue a EUR500m no-grow eight year Pfandbrief on Monday, having announced a mandate this (Friday) afternoon, targeting demand in the intermediate part of the curve with a relatively rare maturity.

The German issuer has mandated ABN Amro, Barclays, DZ, LBBW and UniCredit to lead manage the mortgage-backed issue. A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the deal could be launched as early as Monday, subject to market conditions.

The deal will be the seventh euro benchmark Pfandbrief of the year, but the first with an eight year maturity. Only three euro benchmark covered bonds have been printed with an eight year maturity this year, all of them from France.

“It’s an interesting choice of maturity – being around the intermediate sweet spot but differentiating itself from other recent Pfandbriefe,” said a syndicate banker away from the deal.

Bankers away from the leads expect the deal to be priced tighter than recent German seven supply – Deutsche Bank priced a EUR500m Pfandbrief at minus 12bp on Wednesday and apoBank a EUR500m Pfandbrief at minus 16bp on 6 February – reflecting that Berlin Hyp’s covered bonds trade tighter than those peers.

Berlin Hyp’s last benchmark Pfandbriefe was a EUR500m four year issue in November, which it tapped by EUR250m on 22 January.