Norway

Link Mobility Group Holding, the Norwegian provider of business to consumer messaging and mobile services, has secured seven cornerstone orders for stock as part of its flotation in Oslo.

DNB Boligkreditt on Thursday issued its first euro covered bond since January 2019 in large size, pricing inside its own curve — once again underscoring the strong technical backdrop to the market.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance has said it will apply tighter mortgage lending standards from next week after temporarily loosening them to support the economy. The move, which was not unexpected in light of the resilient state of the economy and stubbornly high house price inflation, will minimise mortgage defaults.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2020 funding programmes in mid-September.

Eika Boligkreditt and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt issued covered bonds flat or inside their curves this week. But a deal for Sparebank 1 Boligkredit stood out for its green credentials that ensured it received more demand from more investors and achieved a much larger deal size.

Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ), Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt (Svegno) were set to issue covered bonds with zero new issue premiums on Thursday. But after a surprisingly busy week, the market is now "running out of steam" with order books were much slower to build and subscription ratios far lower than transactions issued earlier this week.

UniCredit Bank Austria (Baca) was set to issue its fastest growing, most subscribed covered bond ever on Tuesday and Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt was posed to bring ts most subscribed deal with its most granular order book ever. Both covered bonds were priced flat or slightly inside fair value and illustrated that market conditions are at the best they've been this year.

Nordic Semiconductor, the Norwegian maker of semiconductors, has completed an Nkr1.1bn ($125m) growth capital raising to fund M&A opportunities and an acceleration of its growth strategy.

DNB Boligkreditt did not waste any time waiting to tap its covered bond first issued last week, raising a further Skr500m on Thursday in order to capitalise on the attractiveness of the Swedish krona compared with other currencies.

A trio of European SSAs raised a combined $6bn with five year dollar benchmarks this week. Kommunalbanken, the European Stability Mechanism and Nordic Investment Bank all hit a “very deep pocket” of demand in the tenor.

The European Stability Mechanism hit dollar the market on Wednesday with a five year benchmark — its fourth ever in the currency. Two Nordic issuers are set to follow suit on Thursday.

International Finance Corp sold the first Kauri bond in more than two months on Thursday, while in the Kangaroo market a pair of European agencies tapped a pocket of demand further down the curve.