Nordics

Swedish private equity firm EQT confirmed on Monday that it is seeking to list on the Nasdaq Stockholm, becoming the second issuer to announce it aims to test Europe’s IPO market this autumn.

Issuance is starting to resume after the summer break; however, this week a booming public market drew away investor and issuer attention from MTNs. Despite this, a range of established SSA, FIG and corporate borrowers have slipped in, with deals across core, niche and EM currencies.

After two huge days of corporate bond issuance, Thursday was much quieter, with issues only from Vier Gas Transport and SBB Norden — not because the market was worse, but just because most of the issuers that wanted to come this week had crowded into the first two days.

Following its latest euro syndication, the Republic of Finland is looking at a possible return to the dollar market after a two year absence. On Wednesday, demand for the sovereign’s latest bond was high as it printed through the ECB deposit rate to sell “the most expensive syndication of all time”, according to a banker on the deal.

Rating: Aa1/AA+/AA+

Swedish private equity firm EQT is likely to bring its IPO to market before the end of the year, joining a host of high quality European listings.

Following what a banker on Wednesday's euro bond called the ‘richest syndication of all time’, the Republic of Finland is looking at a possible return to the dollar market.

Finnish nuclear power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) got a warm reception from the investors on Wednesday, when it sold €550m of senior unsecured notes after a 20bp tightening from initial price thoughts.

Demand for the Republic of Finland’s latest bond was high on Wednesday as it printed through the ECB deposit rate to sell “the most expensive syndication of all time”, according to a banker on the deal. The five year note came 29.9bp richer than Austria’s previous record holding deal, another five year note sold in June.

A flight to safety is underway leaving little support for the riskier bits of leveraged finance. A Finnish nuclear power company is, however, marketing a deal in the high yield bond market and one investor told GlobalCapital he expects to see others follow suit rather than tap the loan market.

Kommunalbanken brought its green bond framework to the Swedish krona market for the first time last week to place its seventh green note, its first since August 2018. The move into the currency follows a wider trend of major SSA issuers funding in niche currencies as raising debt in core markets becomes harder, according to bankers.

HSBC France and Svenska Handelsbanken avoided issuing senior bonds at negative yields in a busy new issue market on Tuesday, but bankers said it was only a 'matter of time' before someone takes the plunge below 0% with an unsecured deal.