Norway

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.

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.

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.

Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (FCDQ), SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt (Spabol) and DZ Bank have announced plans to issue covered bond benchmarks on Wednesday when the market is expected to be just as busy as it was on Tuesday.

Euronext on Monday formally launched its offer to buy Norwegian exchange group Oslo Børs VPS, saying it wanted to position the firm as the “key capital markets hub in the Nordic region”.

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.

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.

Ice Group, the Norwegian mobile phone company, on Thursday called off its second attempt to list on the main board of the Oslo Stock Exchange, blaming turbulence in global equity markets.

Trade body the Futures Industry Association (FIA) on Tuesday released recommendations on how to shore up clearing house (CCP) risk management processes in the wake of a €114m member default at Nasdaq Clearing in September.