IDB and KfW slug it out

摘要

Inter-american development bank and KFW marketed competing five-year US dollar trades last week, sparking a raft of theories in the market as to why the two issuers ended up running concurrent deals, arguably to the detriment of both. IDB on Monday started marketing a new June 2020 US dollar benchmark trade at 1bp area over mid-swaps, and, soon after, KfW announced a June 2020 trade of its own, but with IPTs of 3bp area over mid-swaps. "Of course it is their prerogative to launch a deal whenever they please, but it wasn't the gentlemanly thing to do," said a lead banker on IDB. "It's one thing if KfW comes at a similar level or 1bp back, but 2bp back is massive. It is very rare for large issuers to deliberately step on each others' toes like this," he said.