Nordea Markets

Sweden on Tuesday printed a dollar benchmark at one of the tightest spreads to mid-swaps from a public sector issuer this year, as a Canadian province prepared to bring a deal in the currency further out the curve.

Nordea Bank set a final spread of just 18bp over mid-swaps for its first entry into the green senior bond market on Monday, as banks start to step up their use of the format.

Nordic issuers are occupying both ends of the deal size range in the euro high yield market of late. First was Sweden's Instrum’s multibillion bond sale on Friday, and on Tuesday Denmark’s European Energy announced a €50m refinancing deal.

A week long roadshow and investor meetings in six countries paid off for Swedish debt collector Intrum Justitia, which sold the bond to fund its merger with Lindorff with an average coupon of below 3% on Friday.

Covering four tranches, two currencies and fixed and floating rate payouts, what could be the largest high yield bond since April 2016 hit screens on Monday as Intrum Justitia embarked upon a week-long roadshow for a €3bn bond.

Blackstone has agreed to buy Finnish property group Sponda for nearly €1.8bn in an all-cash deal

Sub-benchmark transactions made up a chunk of Wednesday’s busy euro primary market, with Metso Corp and Neste bringing bonds for less than €500m.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt and Société Générale enjoyed solid receptions for their covered bonds this week, with the Norwegian issuer pricing flat to its curve.

JP Morgan smashed through $15bn of year-to-date TLAC issuance this week as a trio of banks hit the dollar market, ahead of a brief break for Memorial Day holiday.

Shares in Medicover, the Swedish diagnostic services provider, closed 17% higher on their trading debut on Tuesday after the company finished its Skr2bn (€207m) IPO on Nasdaq Stockholm, having priced the deal at the mid-point of its range.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt issued its second ever covered bond and, similar to deals issued last week, was able to price flat to its curve. But its bonds are not eligible for the ECB's purchase programme, unlike some of last week's tightest issues, which could limit performance potential.

Shares in Munters, the Swedish climate control systems group backed by Nordic Capital, traded as much as 26% above their offer price on Friday after they began trading on Nasdaq Stockholm after its Skr4bn (€422m) IPO.