Norway

The Kingdom of Norway is eyeing the international investor base as it prepares to launch its yearly Norwegian krone bond syndication — a new 10 year benchmark, set to mature in August 2030.

BW Offshore, the Norwegian operator of floating oil storage vessels, has fixed a price range for the Nkr1.659bn ($187m) listing of its exploration and production unit BW Energy on the Oslo Børs.

Two supranationals hopped into the Kangaroo market with environmental, social governance (ESG) bond taps this week, in a move that is becoming increasingly popular. With a local holiday this weekend marking the end of antipodean summer, bankers expect Australian dollar issuance to restart in the next few weeks.

Mowi, one of the largest seafood companies in the world, issued a €200m green bond this week. The Norwegian fish farmer advertises seafood as an environmentally friendlier and healthier alternative to meat but has also faced claims that it endangers ecosystems with its net-pen salmon farms.

Norwegian oil exploration and production company Aker BP took advantage of its second investment grade rating, out of three, received in November, to position itself as an investment grade issuer and print a dual tranche five and 10 year deal this week.

The first Kangaroo deals of 2020 from SSAs started trickling through this week, after ANZ blew the doors off the Australian dollar market with a A$3.5bn ($2.4bn) self-led domestic deal on Tuesday.

KfW broke new ground in the sterling bond market on Monday by bringing its largest ever benchmark in the currency. Kommunalbanken is looking to latch on to the red hot market too after picking banks to lead a new December 2024 trade.

DNB Bank made the most of a favourable backdrop in the financial institutions bond market this week, selling a short-dated senior bond in sterling after recent prints in euros and dollars.

The Kingdom of Norway has sold a chunk of its stake in Entra, the Norwegian real estate development company, via an accelerated bookbuild that attracted more than 200 orders, according to a source close to the transaction.

Bank Norwegian has mandated a pair of banks to look into a possible Norwegian krone or Swedish krona issuance.

BBVA and DNB Bank were both looking to build towards their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in the euro market on Thursday, eschewing non-preferred senior issuance in favour of the cheaper preferred senior format.

Norwegian Air Shuttle, the budget airline, has gone back to shareholders for fresh capital for the second time this year, to fund itself into 2020 and beyond, while it tries to shift from a period of aggressive growth to a focus on profitability.