Nordics

Danske Bank extended its covered bond maturity curve by more than five years on Tuesday, breaking with tradition to price in line with where SEB recently issued.

A rush of consolidation has swept through Europe’s payments processing industry in the past six months and the financing for two of the deals, the acquisitions of Nets and Paysafe, hit the leveraged finance market this week.

TCM Group, Scandinavia's third largest kitchen and bathroom furniture maker, has opened the books for its Nasdaq Copenhagen IPO of Dkr630m (€85m) to Dkr735m (€99m).

Subordinated bonds from financial issuers have been back in favour in the Swedish krona market this year, with investors seeking out higher yields compared with other types of credit.

Is demand in Europe’s leveraged finance market so strong that a single-B rated borrower could raise €3.5bn of high yield bonds and loans, and use some of the cash to fund the largest dividend recapitalisation of the year? Verisure began marketing such deal this week, and many investors appear to like it.

Guarantor: All Danish municipalities and regions

KommuneKredit and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt rounded out this week’s dollar issuance in what has become typical fashion for trades over the last few days — oversubscribed books and tightened pricing. But KommuneKredit’s deal featured a novel aspect that SSA bankers hope other issuers will embrace.

There were several large equity block trades on Wednesday night this week, including a rare sale of shares in one of Russia’s biggest steel companies.

Founders of Mr Green, the Nordic online gambling company, picked Carnegie and SEB to sell a block of its shares in an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night. The trade was then increased.

DNB Boligkreditt enjoyed great execution for its €1.5bn seven year covered bond on Thursday, but real money accounts switched out of more expensive deals in good size for the first time in months, suggesting investors have far less inclination to add to positions at prevailing spread levels than was previously the case.

Komplett Bank, the Norwegian consumer lender, priced a Nkr896m sale of shares on Oslo Bors at the top of the initial range, bucking the trend of many recent flotations.

Crayon Group, the Norwegian software management company, had to fight for investors' attention to get its Nkr650m IPO sold, its CEO Torgrim Takle said on Thursday.