Finland

The euro market, despite an increasingly hawkish central bank and strengthening euro, is proving immensely popular with borrowers. A pair of sovereigns hit screens on Monday for euro trades, as did two Nordic agencies.

Stora Enso, the pulp and paper company based in Finland, has successfully refinanced a €700m loan with a €600m revolving credit facility.

Finland’s Oma Savings Bank found strong demand for a debut covered bond on Monday which, because of its sub-benchmark size, offered a sizeable premium to any other Finnish benchmark.

Rovio, the Finnish publisher of the Angry Birds mobile phone game, suffered a 22% fall in its share price on Thursday, after announcing its first set of results since its IPO.

Eika Boligkreditt closed the pricing gap to Norway’s national champion, DNB Boligkreditt, with a €500m seven year covered bond issued on Tuesday. At the same time Finland’s Oma Savings Bank mandated leads to market its inaugural deal.

OP Mortgage Bank was set to price the first €1bn sized covered bond of the week on Wednesday and, despite offering hardly any new issue premium, the transaction found strong demand reflecting a popular but exceptionally rare tenor. At the same time, Switzerland's Valliant Bank issued its debut covered bond and Sparkasse Hannover issued a sub-benchmark Pfandbrief.

Public sector borrowers are flocking to the green bond market, dominating the upcoming SSA pipeline as the year draws to a close.

Municipality Finance issued its first green private placement on Wednesday, coming alongside a drive for more green assets on the lending side.

Nordea announced on Wednesday that it would become a systematic internaliser for FX and interest rate derivatives and cash bonds under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II.

A position paper detailing a new unified approach to impact reporting by Nordic public sector green bond issuers has been welcomed by investors, who hailed its broad scope and detailed methodology as an important development for the market.

SP Mortgage Bank’s second covered bond brought in many new investors enabling the transaction to price inside interpolated fair value. With more buyers chasing this name and more trading desks expected to quote it, SP’s curve has a fair chance of repricing tighter.

Finnish property company, Mercada, was a lone issuer in the corporate bond market on Monday. Its €175m five year deal q was printed while issuers that completed roadshows last week paused.