The first four euro benchmarks of the year all attracted peak demand of €2bn-plus today (Tuesday), as deals from seven to 15 years and issuers CBPP-eligible and ineligible found favour, while RLB NÖ-Wien and UniCredit HVB teed up trades for tomorrow. CBA meanwhile added a third Sonia-linked trade.

“Today was the first real execution day of the new year,” said a syndicate banker, “which went hand in hand with a great reopening for the euro market.”

“Investors were ready to participate,” he added, “good names were on the screen, and there were decent new issue premiums – so a nice mix of variables made for a success.”

Another syndicate banker said limited new issue premiums, strong oversubscription levels and pricing moves of 3bp-4bp for all trades across the curve was a “fantastic start to the year”.

After being the first to announce its plans, yesterday (Monday), LBBW was the first to open books this morning, for a €750m long seven year transaction.

Leads ABN Amro, LBBW, Lloyds, Natixis and TD went out with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 3bp area for the July 2027 mortgage Pfandbrief, and after around 55 minutes, books were reported as being over €1.75bn. After around an hour and 25 minutes, the spread was fixed at minus 1bp on the back of orders over €2.25bn, including €20m joint lead manager interest, and the final allocatable book was around €1.9bn, including €85m JLM interest.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the smaller issue size allowed the German issuer to be more aggressive in its pricing strategy, leaving only 1bp of new issue premium on the table.

“It’s a good name and it’s a good tenor,” he said. “Spread-wise, it did exactly as it should do in a market like this.”

Shortly after LBBW opened the market, Erste leads Banca IMI, Danske, DekaBank, DZ, Erste and LBBW went out with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 8bp area for a 10 year euro benchmark-sized Austrian mortgage Pfandbrief. After around 40 minutes, books were reported as being over €1.25bn, excluding JLM interest, and after around an hour and 15 minutes, guidance was revised to 4bp+/-1bp, WPIR, on the back of orders over €2.5bn, excluding JLM interest. The spread was ultimately fixed at 3bp and the size at €750m, on the back of orders over €2.8bn, including €110bn JLM interest.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the highly successful trade priced considerably tighter than Austrian deals late last year, reflecting Erste’s national champion status.

“With over 100 investors involved and a €2.8bn-plus order book,” he said, “this basically shows that the entire universe can and will buy Erste.”

He saw fair value at around 1bp-2bp, based on the issuer’s own curve, implying a minimal new issue premium. He said that even after the guidance had been revised to 4bp+/-1bp, the order book continued to grow and very few investors dropped, demonstrating the strength of the trade.

“We had latecomers joining the book even after this revision,” he added, “which says a lot.”

ABN Amro leads ABN Amro, Commerzbank, LBBW, Natixis and UBS this morning went out with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 8bp area for a 15 year euro benchmark transaction. After around 30 minutes, books were reported as being over €1.5bn, excluding JLM interest. After around an hour and 45 minutes, the spread was fixed at 5bp and the minimum issue size at €1.5bn, on the back of orders over €2.3bn, excluding JLM interest. The size was ultimately set at €2bn on the back of over €2.75bn of demand, excluding JLM interest.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the trade performed slightly better than expected, but overall, was supported by a stronger market backdrop for the reopening of euros.

“It was a pretty smooth ride after a bit of volatility over the past few days,” he said.

“And clearly for a 15 year you don’t get a €3bn book every day,” he added. “Indeed, we were comfortable ahead that it would perform, but it was still nice see it working so well.”

According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, the Dutch bank’s outstanding 2032-2034 paper was quoted at mid-swaps flat, mid, and its 2037-2039 paper at plus 1bp.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) leads Barclays, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, DZ and Scotiabank went out with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 13bp area for a seven year euro benchmark transaction. After around an hour and five minutes, books were reported as being over €1.25bn, excluding JLM interest. After around two hours and 10 minutes, the spread was set at 9bp on the back of orders over €2.3bn, excluding JLM interest. The size was ultimately set at €1.5bn on the back of order over €2.4bn, excluding JLM interest.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the deal demonstrated that even non CPP3-eligible deals could compete in the market today.

“We started at the 13bp area, set at 9bp, and then we were clearly trying to sort for size,” he said.

He saw fair value at 7bp, indicating 2bp of new issue premium.

“It may only be a couple of basis points positive yield, but this worked extremely nicely,” he said, “showing that it’s not only the big names like LBBW and ABN getting a lot of demand, but also non-eligible paper, which was really good.”

A syndicate banker away from the leads said he admired the trade for performing in an extremely busy market.

“As a non-eurozone trade, there’s a little more pick-up there,” he said, “but they still had a very large order book, showing people had time to look at all trades today.”

Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) this morning announced plans for a €500m 15 year no-grow covered bond. Barclays, Crédit Agricole, Erste, LBBW and RBI have the mandate for the deal, which is expected to be launched tomorrow (Wednesday).

According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, the issuer’s January 2029 paper was quoted at 3.5bp over mid-swaps, mid, Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark May 2033s at 4bp, Bawag October 2029s at 4bp and June 2034s at 2bp, and Erste September 2029s and May 2034s at 2bp.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said ABN Amro’s €2bn 15 year implied investor demand at the longer end of the curve.

“It’s not just RLB, it’s UniCredit tomorrow as well, and there will be other issuers opting for longer tenors than a straight 10 year,” he said. “Moreover, it’s only a €500m no-grow, the ECB are quite active, and they can count on the German and domestic bid.”

UniCredit Bank AG (HVB) is set to launch a 12 year mortgage Pfandbrief, after announcing this morning that it had mandated Danske, Helaba, ING, LBBW and UniCredit for the trade.

According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, its May 2029s were at plus 2bp, mid, and its May 2034s at plus 2.5bp.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) launched the third successive five year Sonia-linked sterling benchmark of the year today, but the first from a non-UK issuer, following a £1bn Nationwide five year market reopener on Friday and a £600m issue for Leeds Building Society yesterday.

Leads Barclays, CBA, Deutsche Bank and HSBC went out with guidance of the Sonia plus 60bp area for the £1bn benchmark before and guidance revised to 55bp-57bp, WPIR, on the back of orders above £1.4bn, excluding JLM interest. The deal was ultimately priced at 55bp and the size fixed at £1bn on the back of over £1.7bn of demand, excluding JLM interest.

A syndicate banker at one of the leads said the deal was another resounding success for the sterling asset class.

“The market is hot, and sterling is flying out the door,” she said, “so the issuer decided to hit the market today – and it clearly worked.”

Nationwide’s five year was priced at 55bp over and Leeds’ at 54bp after the reopener had tightened to 53bp.