Nordics
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Covered bond investors are setting more conditions on their orders, joining order books later, and limiting tenors they will buy, anxious to avoid buying bonds that will underperform. Despite the picky investor base, Swedbank still raised a €1bn five year at a record tight spread.
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Sampo, the Finnish insurance firm, brushed away the recent bout of volatility with a €500m issue of new senior bonds in the euro market on Tuesday. -
The SSA market showed its “resilience” to the horror show in US equities early in the week as a series of borrowers printed strong dollar trades — one with its largest ever book, another with its largest size in years and not one paying up for the privilege. Some bankers suggested they may have benefited from a flight to safety but the general sense was that if the volatility comes back, public sector borrowers need not worry.
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Hurtigruten, the Norwegian cruise operator owned by TDR Capital, has agreed on final pricing on a €660m leveraged loan facility, raising enough debt to repay all its high yield bonds.
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A pair of dollar deals on Wednesday showcased what bankers felt was a theme during a week with a volatile market backdrop, as a top tier name tightened pricing and was comfortably oversubscribed, while a second tier issuer was able to get a deal away but could not move in from price thoughts.
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Public sector borrowers are reaping the benefits of investors looking to “weather the storm” of wider market volatility, said bankers, as investors poured cash into short dated dollar issues this week. Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten and Sweden are set to be the next issuers to benefit, after mandating for three year trades on Tuesday.
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A pair of euro borrowers braved a tricky market on Tuesday, raising a combined €4bn despite heavy weather in government spreads. One opted for a defensive pricing strategy, while the other attempted to squeeze investors.
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The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Municipality Finance announced sterling transactions for Tuesday, making this January a remarkably busy one for the currency.
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Kommunalbanken has announced a dollar floater trade to launch on Tuesday, just ahead of the Federal Open Markets Committee’s rate decision on Wednesday.
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Norway's SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt this week issued the first covered bond secured solely on energy-efficient green residential homes. The transaction not only provides a solid template for other Norwegian borrowers, but may well lay the groundwork for covered bond and RMBS issuers throughout Europe.
