Finland
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Pohjola Bank changed direction to issue tier two debt in Swedish kronor on Tuesday, after being kept out of the euro market in the second quarter. -
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Finnish sporting goods company Amer Sports issued its second Schuldschein loan for $55m to meet demand from investors left out of its first deal.
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A quiet patch for block trades was broken on Tuesday evening when UBS launched an €865m accelerated bookbuild in Kone Corp, the Finnish maker of lifts — an exceptionally rare deal in the stock, which has a €20bn market capitalisation.
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Timo Ruotsalainen, head of treasury at Aktia Bank in Finland, speaks to The Cover about the European Central Bank’s covered bond purchase programme, LCR funding and shrinking investor pools.
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Ålandsbanken priced a €250m no-grow five year Finnish covered bond on Tuesday after an extensive marketing period. The trade offered a decent pick up over where the comparables named by the leads were quoted.
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Ålandsbanken is lining up to price a €250m covered bond and is meeting investors in Europe from May 5 – 12. This will be the Finnish bank’s largest covered bond to date.
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Aktia Bank Finland priced its Aaa-rated €500m no-grow deal on Tuesday, in what can only be described as a straightforward well prepared transparent process. In contrast, Banco Popular Espanol came to market with a less prepared €1bn, Baa1-rated offering in an over supplied part of the curve, just as peripheral sovereign volatility spiked higher. Nevertheless, with an attractive concession, the Spanish issuer got a fair result.
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The euro/dollar exchange rate’s correction following last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting provided an ideal opportunity for LBBW to tap its March 2018, Reg S dollar benchmark on Monday. In the meantime, Aktia Bank announced plans to open books on Tuesday for a €500m seven year, which is expected to benefit from Moody’s recent change in its rating methodology.
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Aktia Bank has a strong liquidity position, good asset quality and solid capital ratios, but as one of Finland’s smaller banks it has a low market share and as such, faces a fiercely competitive environment, said analysts at LBBW research on Friday.
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Nordea Finland attracted almost equal interest for both tranches of its 5.25 year and 12 year covered bond that was priced with barely any new issue premium on Tuesday. This symmetry to demand defied convention and illustrated strong comfort in the credit which enabled investors to reach for yield with a high degree of confidence.
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The Finnish issuer has mandated leads for a roadshow that starts on March 16.
