Finland

The European Investment Bank built a book of €8bn for a 10 year Earn on Tuesday as the 10 year Bund yield fell to a 12 month low, leading bankers on the deal to suggest tougher times may lie ahead for euro issuers.

Natural gas provider Gasum enlisted just two banks to provide a €640m credit facility, part of which will refinance a recent acquisition by the group.

The number of new covered bond issuers grew to five this year after Standard and Poor’s assigned a preliminary AAA rating to the covered bond programme of The Mortgage Society of Finland.

Finnish property investment firm Sponda has completed its €221m rights offering, which it first announced in late February and which will be used to partially repay a bridge loan.

Lehto Group, the Finnish construction and real estate firm, said on Tuesday that it intended to float in Helsinki, in a deal that would consist primarily of new shares.

Following approval of its demerger plan, Nordea has managed to get the consent of bondholders to transfer the assets and liabilities affecting 31 of its Finnish covered bonds to a new entity with a new guarantee. However, it does not yet have investors’ consent on six remaining deals.

After a quiet week in which only two benchmark deals took place — including a debut euro benchmark from Finland's Municipality Finance — the sovereign, supranational and agency market is eagerly awaiting a deal from the European Stability Mechanism.

Municipality Finance is aiming to bring a debut green bond after the summer, with euros a possible currency for the bond.

KommuneKredit has printed a no-grow €1bn seven year from an oversubscribed book, becoming the second Nordic agency to do a euro benchmark deal this week.

Despite the limited supply in the SSA market this week, with issuers avoiding issuing close to this week’s US Federal Open Market Committee meeting and the approaching Easter holidays, there was still room for a clash of issuers on Monday as one borrower felt compelled to slam the anchors on its proposed benchmark.

KommuneKredit is set to print a seven year euro deal on Wednesday, following a debut euro benchmark from Municipality Finance in the form of a €1bn October 2021 on Tuesday.

Nordea issued a notice on Friday seeking the consent of covered bond investors to agree to the terms of a deed poll and a new guarantee mechanism that will align its Finnish covered bond programme with its Danish, Norwegian and Swedish programmes. Moody’s says the proposal will not affect the credit rating.