Crédit Agricole is planning to launch its inaugural, benchmark green covered bond after a roadshow announced today (Monday). Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec is meanwhile due with an eight year euro benchmark, while Landesbank Berlin issued a €250m four year Pfandbrief today.

The European roadshow for Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH’s inaugural green covered bond was announced this morning, with Crédit Agricole CIB mandated to organize investor meetings from Friday, and an intermediate maturity transaction is expected to follow thereafter, subject to market conditions.

The deal will be only the second French green covered bond backed by home loans since Société Générale SFH issued the first such transaction in July. Earlier this month, Caffil, the covered bond issuer of France’s SFIL group, launched the first green covered bond backed by public sector assets.

Crédit Agricole SA issued the French group’s first benchmark green bond, a €1bn five year issue, in November 2018. Crédit Agricole CIB also issues green bonds, but these are privately placed.

For the green covered bond, Crédit Agricole has added a green residential real estate appendix to its green bond framework. As with SG’s green covered bond and several others with energy efficient properties among the use of proceeds, construction year is used as a proxy for energy performance to ensure buildings are among the 15% most energy efficient in France.

Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (FCDQ, ticker CCDJ) today announced plans for an eight year euro benchmark for launch in the near future, subject to market conditions. Barclays, Crédit Agricole, DZ and TD have the mandate for the Canadian covered bond.

According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, CCDJ’s May 2023s were quoted at mid-swaps plus 5bp, mid, and its January 2024s at 7bp, the latter wider than 2025 paper from the big five Canadian banks, which was quoted at 5bp, while CIBC and TD July 2027 paper was quoted at 7bp and 6bp over, respectively.

A syndicate banker said a core European name is also set to approach the market in the next few days, with a medium to long term benchmark.

“The market is still super-liquid, so if issuers feel like hammering out something prior to year-end, they stand a good chance to get their transactions cleared properly,” he said.

“However,” he added, “it’s no great mystery that, on 18 November, there is not that much more to be expected.”

Raiffeisen Bank International will meanwhile begin a roadshow for an inaugural euro benchmark mortgage-backed covered bond tomorrow. DZ, Mediobanca, RBI, SG and UniCredit have the Austrian’s mandate.

Syndicate bankers said market conditions are still conducive to issuance and expect more deals to join the pipeline in the next fortnight, despite the holiday seasons being within reach.

“There is end-of-the-year sentiment going around,” said one, “but with the ECB ordering and good or at least flat performance for all recent issues, I don’t see any reason why we will not see some new transactions on screens.”

Landesbank Berlin AG (LBB) attracted over €350m of demand to a €250m four year mortgage Pfandbrief today, pricing it at 1bp over mid-swaps.

This morning, lead DekaBank went out with guidance of mid-swaps flat to plus 2bp. Guidance was then revised to 1bp on the back of orders over €330m, and the deal was ultimately priced at 1bp on the back of orders over €350m, excluding joint lead manager interest.

A lead syndicate banker said the deal offered 2bp of new issue premium.

“It went well and it was mainly Germany in the book,” he said, “and it was more a case of high volume orders than a granular book.”