Nordics

The European Systemic Risk Board is concerned that covered bonds could be fuelling financial imbalances — a claim that some analysts find tenuous. They do, however, agree that house prices are overvalued, particularly in some Nordic countries where the ESRB has identified a risk of financial contagion.

Corporate, FIG and SSA issuers placed floating rate notes this week, pegged to Euribor, Sonia and Libor. With so many issuers coming to market, bankers are interested to see which other borrowers 'take advantage of the liquidity'.

Sweden has mandated SEB as structuring adviser on its debut green bond, to be issued in 2020. The announcement on Thursday morning for the first time puts a definite date on when Sweden will issue. The process of considering the idea has already taken nearly three years.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt will become the fourth Norwegian bank to issue a green covered bond after mandating leads for a roadshow on Thursday. It follows the first green covered bond by Norway’s SR Boligkreditt and a vanilla deal from Møre Boligkreditt issued this week.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt will become the fourth Norwegian bank to issue a green covered bond and has mandated leads for a roadshow following publication of its green and sustainability framework.

KommuneKredit’s senior funding and investor relations manager Lasse Vest has left the Danish agency for Danske Bank.

Investor demand for Møre Boligkreditt’s five year covered bond issued on Wednesday was well in excess of the deal size — even though the negative yield of minus 0.269% means they are bound to lose money if they hold it to maturity.

SR Boligkreditt attracted robust demand for its first green covered bond on Tuesday, enabling the bonds to be priced with a minimal concession.

Investors have not completely shunned Libor-linked floating rate notes from public sector borrowers, as a trade from Swedish Export Credit Corp showed this week.

SATS, the Norwegian owner and operator of fitness clubs across the Nordic region, is seeking to list on the Oslo stock exchange, riding a wave of interest in the consumer fitness sector sparked by the IPO of Peloton in New York.

Deals set to be issued by the Province of Ontario and Development Bank of Japan on Wednesday attracted good demand, reflecting their higher yield relative to other dollar supra and agency bonds.

Scatec Solar, a Norwegian solar power generator, raised Nkr1.3bn (€132m) of growth capital in a share sale on Tuesday evening amid rising investor demand for renewable energy assets in Europe.