Santander sold the largest single-tranche euro benchmark since April today (Wednesday), a €1.75bn long 10 year cédulas that attracted a peak €2.5bn of demand, while Crédit Agricole was able to size a 10 year debut green covered bond at €1.25bn at a limited new issue premium.

The last euro benchmark as large as Santander’s was a €1.75bn short five year for Toronto-Dominion on 3 April.

The cédulas hipotecarias is the first CBPP3-eligible peripheral benchmark to have hit the market since the restart of APP at the turn of the month.

After announcing the mandate this morning, Santander leads Barclays, BNP Paribas, Helaba, NordLB and Santander went out with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 15bp area for the long 10 year euro benchmark. Books peaked at €2.5bn, and the deal was ultimately sized at €1.75bn and priced at plus 12bp.

One syndicate banker away from the leads saw fair value at 9bp, implying 3bp of new issue premium.

“They took one and three quarters,” he said, “which is both massive and very impressive.”

Another banker away from the leads said that it may have left “something on the table” by pricing at plus 12bp.

“We indicated plus 10bp yesterday for 10 years,” he said, “which represented 1bp or so of NIP, so they left something like 3bp-4bp, depending on how you look at the curve.”

The syndicate banker said that despite this, the trade presented a decent outcome for the issuer, as did its 10 year French counterpart for Crédit Agricole.

“Both deals developed dynamically in terms of size and price, and both took more than €1bn, which is a rare thing these days,” he said, “so I cannot have any objections to either of the two.”

Another banker away from the leads saw fair value at around 7bp-8bp, based on its own curve.

“Santander remains a core covered bond issuer that has been relatively active this year,” he said. “They started marketing the deal 7bp-8bp back of fair value with a completely different pricing approach compared to the French deal, but it was a good deal.”

Santander’s last benchmark cédulas was a €1.5bn 10 year in early July, which was priced at 15bp over. The last Spanish benchmark was a Liberbank €1bn 10 year in late September.

Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH announced plans for its inaugural green covered bond on Monday of last week (18 November) and roadshowed from Friday. Leads BBVA, Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank, SEB and TD this (Wednesday) morning went out with guidance of mid-swaps plus 4bp-7bp, will price in range, for the 10 year euro benchmark. A first update after around 35 minutes put books above €1bn and after around two hours the spread was set at 4bp on the back of orders over €1.9bn. The deal was ultimately sized at €1.25bn with over €2bn of orders good at 4bp.

Syndicate bankers away from the leads put the new issue premium at around 1bp.

“Plus 4bp is almost to the curve, but apparently it did the trick,” he said, “perhaps because it carried this green label, which helped them drive it a little tighter than what they otherwise could’ve done.”

He said that the “will price in range” execution strategy made it apparent from the beginning that it was going for size and that, in doing so, it had more than likely enabled it to achieve its aims.

“If their idea was to print as much as possible at 4bp over,” he added, “they definitely did OK with €2bn of demand for a €1.25bn.”

Another syndicate banker away from the leads said the success of the 10 year green trade, as well as a green senior non-preferred issue from BPCE yesterday (Tuesday), proves “everyone wants green at the moment”.

“€2bn in the book is very nice and the trade was undoubtedly successful,” he added.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the 1bp of new issue premium, compared to Santander’s higher NIP, was due to the green factor.

“As you can imagine, it appealed to a lot of buyers,” he said. “We had a good level of granularity with no less than 75 investors, nobody dropped during the process, and we priced at the tight end of the guidance.

“We’re very pleased.”

Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH is the second issuer in a week to adopt a WPIR strategy from the outset, following a €1bn seven year for compatriot CRH last Wednesday. The lead syndicate banker said the approach was taken to gain greater investor interest and momentum from the start by providing “clarity and definition” in communication around pricing, with investors not needing to wait for revised guidance before placing orders, hence increasing the probability of swift bookbuilding. He said the strategy had paid off as the books exceeded €1bn in under 40 minutes, with the green element “delivering its full impact”.

However, a syndicate banker away from the leads suggested that while the deal had gone well – with €1.25bn notably large for a green bond – the issuer might have been able to price a touch tighter had it not employed the WPIR strategy.