Nordics

Appetite for eurozone sovereigns is showing no signs of slowing down after Ireland and Portugal joined Belgium this week in scoring their largest ever syndication order books. Several other borrowers sold euro trades on Wednesday, with more supply expected this week as the pipeline has “accelerated” ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote on the UK’s Brexit deal.

Swedish markets regulator Finansinspektionen (FI) on Wednesday called for lawmaker-backed resolution plans for clearing houses, in the wake of a default at Nasdaq clearing last September.

Sweden’s Modern Times Group has signed more bank funding related to spinning off Nordic Entertainment, as the media company’s talks with PPF to sell its Bulgarian business were scuppered after falling foul of regulators.

DNB Boligkreditt attracted a comfortably oversubscribed order book for its €1.5bn seven year covered bond on Monday, illustrating the market’s sweet-spots for tenor, name and jurisdiction.

The board of Oslo Børs VPS Holding, the Norwegian exchange group, on Friday said that it would consider alternative bids to acquire it, after Euronext outlined terms for a potential acquisition.

Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab has finished its Skr6bn (€581m) rights issue with enough demand to almost cover the deal twice over.

Danish logistics company Maersk opted to please all of its investors who tendered bonds as part of the company’s recent liability management exercise when it announced on Tuesday that it had increased the total amount it would buy back.

Public sector agencies from the Nordic region are adapting to S&P Global Ratings’ overhaul of its rating methodology. So far, only KommuneKredit has been downgraded under the new rating criteria, but others could suffer similar fates.

Ireland and Denmark have outlined their funding needs for next year, with both sovereigns looking to raise similar amounts to 2018.

Danish logistics company Maersk gave investors something other than political and economic matters to consider this week when it announced a tender offer for its shortest dated euro bonds on Monday. If the current poor tone in the bond markets continues into 2019, this type of exercise could become more prevalent, writes Nigel Owen.

Danish logistics company Maersk gave investors something other than political and economic matter to consider this week when it announced a tender offer for its shortest dated euro bonds on Monday.

Anta Sports Products has mandated six banks for a €2.2bn loan to back the €4.6bn acquisition of Finnish sports brand Amer Sports Oyj.