Nordics

Pexip, the Norwegian video conferencing company, has launched its Nkr2.14bn ($206m) IPO on the Oslo stock exchange.

The Danish Financial Services Authority is softening its application of the minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) amid Covid-19, meaning the country’s largest banks could end up issuing half as much senior debt this year as might have been expected.

Norwegian video conferencing firm Pexip has shown that there may yet be life in Europe's IPO market, which had been presumed incapacitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Investors said they are happy to buy new flotations but probably only a select group of companies will be able to come to market.

Finnish national airline Finnair has launched a rights issue in response to the coronavirus pandemic — the first in an expected wave of large European rescue recapitalisations.

Norwegian video conferencing company Pexip has been hailed by equity capital markets bankers as an ideal IPO for the times amid a surge in remote working due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Swedbank was paying less than fair value for a new euro senior deal on Friday, according to market participants, with the bank raising funding a day after publishing its first quarter results.

A slide in euro and dollar MTN volumes has given Scandinavian banks the chance to propel themselves up the MTN leader board.

SEB is creating a new sustainable finance unit to broaden its offering across the whole bank, and is building a team including country heads — the first of which is Lars Eibeholm, who will join the bank from the Nordic Investment Bank in the summer.

The oil price slump on Monday spelt trouble for issuers in the already underperforming Norwegian krone bond market. Amid this turbulence, state-owned Norwegian airport operator Avinor flew in on Wednesday to print a Nkr2bn ($187.8m) dual floating and fixed tranche deal.

Bluestep Bank has issued its first covered bond and the first Swedish transaction secured on mortgages that are not prime. The deal offered a juicy pick-up to prime benchmarks, but still provided a competitive and diversified source of funding.

Svenska Handelsbanken and Swedbank looked to be as transparent as possible when laying out their assumptions for loan losses this week, as part of an effort to reassure the market about their resilience in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

The prices of Western Canada Select and West Texas Intermediate dropped below zero during trading on Monday, spelling trouble for issuers in the already underperforming Norwegian krone and Canadian dollar.