Finland

The Finnish financial services group is focusing on its insurance assets following pressure from activist hedge fund Elliot International

Two public sector issuers will come to market for euro trades on Tuesday, testing conditions as the autumn borrowing season gets underway

Private placements are expected to make up the bulk of Swedish covered bond paper throughout the latter half of 2021 and, with the Nordic summer holiday period coming to end, issuance from the region is expected to kick off ahead of the eurozone.

Finnish insurer Sampo has bought back more euro-denominated senior bonds as it looks to reduce its leverage, though it failed to gain approval to redeem the remaining bonds ahead of their maturity.

Apex Partners has cut its stake in TietoEvry, the Finnish software and IT services company, via an accelerated bookbuild.

Finland’s Municipality Finance has sold its first bond linked to one of the new risk-free rates, opting for the Secured Overnight Financing Rate for its $200m floater.

Covered bonds issued this week by SCBC and Bank of New Zealand were thinly oversubscribed and illustrated that investors are still sensitive to price, albeit that demand was good for a small green debut from Eika Boligkreditt and a tap from Oma Savings Bank.

Eika Boligkreditt and Oma Savings Bank found good demand for their covered bonds sold on Tuesday with small deal sizes, environmental appeal and European Central Bank providing a boost. Even so, syndicate bankers were not convinced the market was back to full health.

Eika Boligkreditt has mandated joint leads for a 10 year and its first green covered bond under its newly established green framework. At the same time, Bank of New Zealand plans a seven year benchmark and Finland's Oma Savings Bank intends to tap its outstanding six year deal.

Finnish financial services group Sampo has offloaded €1.37bn of shares in Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic region, as part of its planned exit from the group.

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Two SSA issuers were expected to follow Tuesday’s outing in euros from the EU, but only one elected to brave the market on Wednesday.