Nordics

A hungry euro market gorged on deals from France and the European Union on Tuesday, instilling confidence that a trio of trades on Wednesday’s menu will go well — despite two of them being in the same tenor.

Finland is lining up a three year dollar benchmark for Wednesday, following a stream of issuance on Tuesday that highlighted the strength of the dollar market.

The Norwegian lender has mandated leads for the seventh Norwegian euro benchmark to be issued this year and the fourth with a seven year maturity.

Covered bonds issued by DNB Boligreditt and Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) on Monday priced with minimal new issue concessions and showed that market conditions were strong. At the same time Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) opened books for the first Australian dollar covered bond this year.

Songa Offshore, the Norwegian oil drilling company that is going through a distressed debt restructuring, completed on Thursday its raising of new money with a convertible bond, getting the maximum size of $125m.

Covered bond borrowers in the UK, Sweden, France, New Zealand and the Netherlands met with strong receptions for their transactions this week, which collectively raised nearly €6bn.

The short end of the dollar curve is enjoying a purple patch, with public sector borrowers drawing big books and pricing with much lower new issue premiums than earlier in the year.

Tokmanni, Finland’s largest general discount retailer, announced on Tuesday its intention to float on Nasdaq Helsinki during the second quarter, selling both new and existing shares.

The European Investment Bank built a book of €8bn for a 10 year Earn on Tuesday as the 10 year Bund yield fell to a 12 month low, leading bankers on the deal to suggest tougher times may lie ahead for euro issuers.

Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) and Länsförsäkringar Hypotek (LF Hyp) got strong receptions for their covered bonds on Tuesday as investors had plenty of fresh money to put to work at the start of what is likely to be a relatively dry quarter.

Natural gas provider Gasum enlisted just two banks to provide a €640m credit facility, part of which will refinance a recent acquisition by the group.

SBAB Bank printed its first euro fixed rate senior bond since 2013 on Monday, raising €500m of May 2021 notes at the start of what market participants believe could be a busy week for FIG supply.