Nordics

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken followed Swedbank with a seven year deal, printing a well oversubscribed €1.25bn covered bond on Thursday flat to its curve. The deal comes as Citi research suggested excess demand for covered bonds issued this month is at a record level.

Artificial Solutions, the Swedish software company that developed conversational artificial intelligence, may sell new shares on the main Swedish market to finance its growth, once it has obtained a listing on Nasdaq First North, according to its CEO.

The covered bond market looked well supported on Wednesday as Sparebank Soer Boligkreditt issued the most highly oversubscribed deal of the year, which was priced flat to its curve. With all new issues tightening bankers are hopeful that Italian and Greek supply could soon follow.

Kommunalbanken took advantage of being the sole SSA issuer in dollars on Tuesday as it was more than twice subscribed and tightened pricing on its first dollar benchmark of the year. Concerns over volatility from this week’s US Federal Open Market Committee meeting and non-farm payrolls kept some other issuers on the sidelines, said SSA bankers — although two are braving Wednesday’s market.

Shares in Norwegian Air Shuttle, the Norwegian budget airline, fell 25% on Tuesday after the company announced an Nkr3bn (€308m) rights offer to avoid breaking its financial covenants following widening losses and an abandoned takeover attempt by IAG.

Sparebank Soer Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a covered bond and taken advantage of demand identified in the previous three Norwegian deals issued so far this year.

After a string of very successful 10 year covered bond trades, it was clear that seven and five year deals would “fly like hell,” said a syndicate manager on one of the deals issued on Tuesday by Swedbank and Aareal Bank.

Investors are returning to the covered bond, sovereign and supranational agency (SSA) markets in their droves. Despite exceptionally heavy issuance, the startling breadth and depth of demand seen in many deals this week caught market participants off guard — not least the investors themselves. Bill Thornhill reports.

Fearful of missing out and in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into higher yielding covered bonds offered by Canadian, Australian and Swedish issuers this week. A negative new issue premium Royal Bank of Canada’s five year epitomised the state of investor frenzy.

Four covered bond issuers returned to the market on Wednesday and, in contrast to the start of the year when concessions were 5bp-7bp, none paid more than 2bp.

SCBC chose to issue its first green covered bond in its home currency this week, saving itself a few basis points compared with euros — where a green covered bond is now considered 'feasible'.

Fearful of missing out and, in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into six covered bonds on Tuesday with a combined value of more than €6bn.Royal Bank of Canada’s deal epitomised the state of investor frenzy as it was able to issue the largest deal of the year with a negative new issue premium.