Nordics

BPCE and Swedbank attracted good demand for their sizeable 12 and six year covered bonds on Monday. Although the bonds were priced tightly, initial order book momentum was slow. The Swedish issuer did particularly well in the context of money laundering charges.

Insurance companies are finally picking up bond issuance after a first quarter that suffered the lowest issuance volumes since 2017. Finnish firm Sampo was the latest issuer this week.

GN Store Nord, the Danish maker of hearing aids and audio devices, and Orpea, the French care homes operator, both achieved stellar terms on their new convertible bonds (CBs) on Tuesday, highlighting how the scarcity of new paper in the European market has pushed price dynamics in issuers’ favour.

Asset manager Pemberton has opened an office in Denmark to expand its European business.

Sampo Group started to meet investors on Thursday, aiming to print a tier two note. ASR Nederland was the last insurer to raise tier two capital, in a deal that was more than 10 times oversubscribed.

Santander UK, Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt (Spabol) and Erste Group were able to price flat or through their covered bond curves on Tuesday after stoking up hefty demand for their new issues.

Millicom International Cellular, the emerging markets-focused telecoms group, is planning to issue its first sustainable bond. It published a Sustainability Bond Framework on Tuesday and will issue with a high yield rating.

Walter Ahlström is joining Swedbank as its new head of corporate finance in Finland, as part of its strategy to grow its equity capital markets business and team. He is joining from Carnegie, where he had worked in Finnish ECM. He had been there for nearly four years.

Boutique investment bank Alantra has made new hires across its offices in Europe, Asia and the US.

Swedish krona levels look attractive compared to euros, say bankers, leading to a raft of large deals being printed at the short end. Swedbank and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank both benefited from these levels when they printed covered bonds this week.

Svenska Handelsbanken was well received for a new senior unsecured transaction in the sterling market on Thursday, despite having pushed the spread towards a level that some investors might be able to pick up from a covered bond.

Kingspan, an Irish insulation company, has made a €700m offer for two units of Belgium’s Recticel, but will sell one of them if the deal goes ahead.