UOB reopens Singapore’s covered bond market

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank UOB last week sold a 1 billion $1.2 billion seven-year covered bond into the European market. Not only was it the first covered bond from the city-state since 2018, it was also the largest ever, and the first with a negative yield.

Final orders saw books more than two-times covered they topped 2.1 billion which allowed the banks on the deal HSBC, Société Générale, UBS and UOB to tighten pricing by five basis points from initial price thoughts of mid-swaps plus 22bp area to mid-swaps plus 17bp. That gave the bond a yield of -0.21%.

“It is a strong credit coming from...