Achmea Bank successfully joined the long-dated issuance trend today (Wednesday), following compatriot Rabobank into the 10 year maturity with a €500m no-grow issue that attracted some €2.85bn of orders, after Argenta Spaarbank and Helaba tapped the maturity yesterday.

“Everything works at the moment,” said a syndicate banker at one of Achmea’s leads, “and everything works along the same pattern: you start 7bp-9bp back of fair value, you take off a handful of those – or all of it – in the process, and when you set the spread, basically taking the punchbowl away, the book keeps growing.

“It’s an issuers’ market.”

After a mandate announcement yesterday (Tuesday), Achmea Bank leads BNP Paribas, DZ, HSBC, Rabobank and SG opened books with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 55bp area for the €500m no-grow February 2034 soft bullet Dutch covered bond, expected rating AAA (S&P). After around an hour and 25 minutes, the leads reported books above €1.5bn, excluding joint lead manager interest, and after around two-and-a-quarter hours, the spread was set at 47bp on the back of books above €2.2bn, pre-reconciliation. The final book good at re-offer was above €2.85bn, including €285m of JLM interest.

The lead banker put fair value at around 45bp, implying 2bp of new issue premium. Achmea January 2030s were seen at 36bp, mid, according to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, while a €1.5bn 10 year issue from compatriot Rabobank priced at 37bp on Tuesday of last week (23 January) was seen at 34bp, ING February 2033s at 38bp, and a €1bn Arkéa 10 year priced at 45bp on Monday was at 44bp.

The Dutch 10 year came after Germany’s Helaba and Belgium’s Argenta Spaarbank tapped the maturity yesterday following mandate announcements on Monday.

Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) leads Crédit Agricole, Erste, Helaba, ING, NordLB and RBC opened books with guidance of the 40bp area for a euro benchmark-sized February 2034 public sector Pfandbrief, expected rating Aaa. After around 55 minutes, they reported books above €1.25bn, excluding JLM interest, and the after around two-and-a-half hours, they set the spread at 33bp on the back of books above €2.1bn. They subsequently set the size at €1.25bn, with orders above €2.4bn, including €220m of JLM interest, and the allocatable book ended at €2.15bn, with 81 orders were good at re-offer.

A lead banker said the issuer had considered a shorter maturity, but went for 10 years as the tenor in which demand is currently deepest.

“And therefore they were happy to take the duration at a modest cost,” he added.

Helaba’s 10 year came 1bp tighter than a €500m no-grow green mortgage Pfandbrief from MünchenerHyp, who successfully tested prevailing levels for long-dated German issuance last Wednesday. That had tightened from 34bp to 26bp, mid, according to comparables circulated by Helaba’s leads on Tuesday morning. Some bankers at the leads put the new issue premium at around 3bp, in the same ballpark as MünchenerHyp.

The lead banker said Helaba’s choice of issuing a public sector Pfandbrief was notable in light of the current focus on commercial mortgage assets, and may have benefited execution.

German accounts were allocated 69% of the paper, Austria 8%, France 8%, Switzerland 5%, Italy 5%, and other 5%. Banks took 70%, asset managers 20%, insurance companies 5%, and other 5%.

Although bookbuilding was slower than for MünchenerHyp’s €500m no-grow green Pfandbrief, a banker away from Helaba’s leads said that was not reflective of any slowdown in demand for 10 year paper.

“The will-not-grow aspect played a role for MünchenerHyp and everyone knows Helaba is traditionally doing €1bn minimum,” he said. “Having a €2.1bn book for a €1.25bn deal is still perfectly fine and they were able to take 7bp away without suffering from the move.

“So it’s still too early to call an end to this 10 year party.”

Argenta’s new issue was a debut green Pandbrieven. Leads ABN Amro, LBBW, Natixis and NordLB opened books with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 68p for a euro benchmark-sized February 2034 Belgian covered bond, expected rating AAA (S&P). After around 50 minutes, they reported books above €2bn, excluding JLM interest, and after around an hour and 35 minutes, they set the size at €750m and the spread at 58bp on the back of books above €3.7bn, pre-reconciliation, with the final book good at re-offer above €4.9bn, excluding JLM interest.

Argenta 0.75% March 2029s and 0.01% February 2031s were at 40bp and 49bp, respectively, according to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, and a banker put the new issue premium for the new deal at around 2bp.