Nordics

Standard & Poor’s has promoted Swedish covered bonds to the highest programme category under its revised rating methodology. The reclassification comes before a Wednesday deadline the rating agency set itself to conclude reviews initiated as a result of the change in its criteria.

Sweden’s SEB launched a benchmark covered bond yesterday (Thursday) to demonstrate its ability to access the market in uncertain times, the issuer told The Cover, despite having last year pre-funded a large amount of debt maturing this year and the beginning of next.

Covered bond issuance of Eu500m or greater deals this week is set to top Eu10bn today (Thursday), with SEB having launched the 12th such issue. Meanwhile, WestImmo launched the third Eu500m Pfandbrief of the week this morning.

Issuers pricing transactions yesterday (Tuesday) adopted flexible approaches to timing and execution, and representatives of CIF Euromortgage and Eurohypo told The Cover that they were happy with the end results in light of market conditions.

A Eu1bn five year issue from OP Mortgage Bank was the most popular covered bond on offer yesterday (Monday), attracting Eu2bn of orders in less than half an hour.

Confident of investors’ appreciation of changes it has made to improve its credit profile, Swedbank Mortgage yesterday (Monday) at short notice launched a five year benchmark transaction without any deal-specific preparation, the issuer told The Cover.

The covered bond market had one of its busiest ever sessions this (Monday) morning, with four institutions making the most of an issuance window despite overall sentiment remaining fragile.

The primary covered bond market is expected to be very busy next week, with mandates for Münchener Hypothekenbank and OP Mortgage Bank announced this (Friday) morning said to be only the first of many due to emerge in the coming days. Meanwhile, France’s CM-CIC snuck out a deal today between a German public holiday yesterday and US non-farm payrolls today.

BNP Paribas priced the biggest benchmark covered bond since the middle of April yesterday (Wednesday) to wrap up the busiest day in the market since then, with Sparebanken Vest and Dexia Kommunalbank Deutschland also taking half a yard each out of the market.

Three issuers launched euro covered bonds this (Wednesday) morning ahead of a public holiday in many parts of Germany tomorrow, with market conditions said to be better than yesterday, although still weak. Meanwhile, the US market could see its first new covered bond supply since mid-April.

Norway’s Møre Boligkreditt is today (Thursday) selling a Nkr800m (Eu100.26m) seven year floating rate note, its second publicly launched covered bond. Moody’s has assigned the covered bonds a definitive Aaa rating, which the issuer told The Cover was important for reaching an international investor base.

Hopes that benchmark covered bond issuance could restart next week have been reined in after reports that French president Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull out of the euro-zone contributed to renewed volatility today (Friday).