Nordics

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. That trend looks set to continue with three SRI deals already on screens.

By offering a hefty pick-up over national champions, Bluestep Bank, a Swedish non-standard mortgage lender, attracted a hefty order book for the second deal from its newly established covered bond platform this week.

DNB Boligkreditt on Thursday issued its first euro covered bond since January 2019 in large size, pricing inside its own curve — once again underscoring the strong technical backdrop to the market.

Finland is unlikely to pay another visit to the syndicated or private placement markets this year and will instead look to round off its long-term funding needs with a tap via auction.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, September 28. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services

Svenska Handelsbanken found tight pricing for a dual offering of additional tier one (AT1) notes on Tuesday. It became the first European bank to set a dollar AT1 coupon of less than 4.5% for one of its tranches.

Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) mandated leads for its first dollar covered bond in a year on Monday. The issuer joins Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which on Monday crystallised plans to press ahead with its debut deal following a period of soft marketing, while Swedish non-conforming lender Bluestep Bank commenced marketing on Monday.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance has said it will apply tighter mortgage lending standards from next week after temporarily loosening them to support the economy. The move, which was not unexpected in light of the resilient state of the economy and stubbornly high house price inflation, will minimise mortgage defaults.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation took full advantage of the quiet SSA market to print a three year dollar benchmark on Wednesday. Ontario Teachers Finance Trust is set to follow on Thursday.

Spanish telecoms group MasMovil is preparing a €720m bond, the second part of the financing for its take-private by Cinven, KKR and Providence Private Equity. Most of the €2.9bn financing came through a loan issue, allocated in July, with the bonds readied following shareholder acceptance for the offer last week.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2020 funding programmes in mid-September.

Eika Boligkreditt and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt issued covered bonds flat or inside their curves this week. But a deal for Sparebank 1 Boligkredit stood out for its green credentials that ensured it received more demand from more investors and achieved a much larger deal size.