Finland

The first scorecard of 2020 looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes at the start of March.

Municipality Finance will look to issue a debut social bond in the second half of this year, having just become the first borrower in Finland to publish a framework for the format.

Bank of America made a paper loss on a €455.4m block trade of shares in Sampo, the Finnish financial services group, on Tuesday night.

Rating: Aa1/AA+/AA+

Finland received record demand for its first syndication of the year on Tuesday. The sovereign was joined in the long end of the curve by the State of North Rhine Westphalia as it tapped its February 2038s.

The Republic of Finland and the State of North Rhine Westphalia hired banks on Monday to prepare syndicated bonds at the long end of the euro curve. Yields of eurozone haven assets remain compressed while fears of the coronavirus outbreak intensify.

Rating: Aa1/AA+

KfW, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and, in the medium-term note (MTN) market, a German region and a Finnish agency have kicked off the Norwegian krone market for SSAs. Bankers are hoping to extend krone’s impressive form from last year into 2020.

Investors piled into the euro public sector bond market on Wednesday, allowing borrowers to achieve well subscribed order books and minimal new issue concessions for a range of maturities.

Danske Mortgage Bank, Santander UK, Raiffeisenlandesbank Hypothekenpfandbrief and UniCredit Bank AG were marketing covered bonds on Wednesday, steering well clear of negative yields by tapping into healthy demand for long dated assets.

A strong reception for a five year euro benchmark by KfW on Tuesday was enough to lure in a hesitant flock of public sector borrowers to the euro market as the pipeline stacks up for Wednesday’s business.

Three companies piled into the euro bond market on Monday, but the deals drew mixed reactions. Two standard investment grade issues from LafargeHolcim and Ford Motor Credit appeared to fare better than a rare green hybrid from Citycon paying a juicy yield.