Nordics

As fund managers fill their pockets with corporate leveraged finance debt, borrowers like BMC Software are taking advantage of strong conditions to slash funding costs across their financial structure.

TCM Group, the Danish kitchen maker, has priced its initial public offering on Nasdaq Copenhagen, at Dkr98 a share, giving it a market cap of Dkr980m (€132m).

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.

Sbanken Boligkreditt, formally known as Skandiabanken, has said that it expects to take advantage of its newly established Euro Medium Term Note (MTN) programme for long-term funding to begin issuing euro denominated covered bonds.

Schibsted, the Norwegian media group, has raised Nkr2.7bn (€258m) of fresh equity in a block trade, to finance its growth in digital classified advertising. The book was very large, with around 180 investors.

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.

Eika Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a €500m no-grow seven year, to be launched on Tuesday. The spread between Eika and DNB Boligkreditt is likely to have tightened substantially since the issuer last came to market in April 2016.

Equity capital markets bankers are eyeing with interest the possibility that Norway’s $1tr sovereign wealth fund might sell all its holdings in oil and gas stocks, potentially creating opportunities for block trades or other structured transactions.

On Wednesday morning, it was doom and gloom as secondary spreads had widened and only Vodafone dipped its toe into new issuance waters. But after a stable afternoon and a positive session in the US, Thursday morning brought calm.

Danish power company Ørsted has wasted no time in issuing under its new name after leaving the Dong Energy brand behind earlier in November. On Thursday the issuer sold a green hybrid and a green senior bond, as well as announcing a tender offer for its shorter dated bonds.

Norwegian energy company Statoil agreed to pay $4m to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Tuesday, over allegations that the company attempted to manipulate an index to benefit its propane swap positions.

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.