Norway

Norwegian car parts manufacturer Kongsberg Automotive is refinancing loans in the high yield market with a deal that offers investors the biggest double-B coupon seen since April.

Crédit Agricole and Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) found good demand for their covered bonds on Tuesday, but it was Crédit Agricole’s transaction that really stood out by virtue of its size and maturity, which until now had been viewed with trepidation.

Opera’s planned $115m Nasdaq IPO now has a cryptocurrency angle after Bitmain, a Chinese bitcoin miner, joined the deal as an anchor investor.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt has mandated joint leads for a five year euro benchmark covered bond that will likely launch on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s senior issue from AIB Group struggled to get over the line, and sent a message to the market about waning investor demand for all but the safest bonds.

Covered bond issuers are monitoring the dollar market with recent deals from DNB Boligkreditt and CIBC suggesting a welcome reception for further issuance. However, Canadian banks, perhaps the most likely dollar issuers, could well be enticed to consider their home market following TD’s recent success.

Allied Irish Banks was unable to bring in pricing from initial price thoughts on Tuesday. SpareBank 1 SMN appeared to be finding more success with its senior preferred offering.

Clients of bank index platforms are adapting to a new investment climate, increasingly opting for more defensive strategies and specifically positioning for volatility spikes similar to the ones markets experienced in early February.

DNB Boligkreditt priced its inaugural green covered bond this week, paying a smaller new issue premium than core European names, but still attracting a large and granular order book in a short time frame.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt took advantage of a slight improvement in sentiment on Monday to issue a €1bn five year covered bond while Møre Boligkreditt issued a sub-benchmark deal. The two banks followed DG Hyp which issued a nine year benchmark.

The world’s largest salmon producer, Marine Harvest, sold the Nordic fish farming industry’s first bond for five years last week and as the industry scales up sources say a wave of issuance from the sector could be on the way.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2018 funding programmes.