Norway

The IPO of Elkem, the Norwegian silicon producer and supplier being floated by ChemChina, priced on Wednesday at Nkr29 ($6.74) a share, the bottom of the expected range.

Elkem, the Norwegian silicon producer and supplier being floated by ChemChina, has had a good start to bookbuilding after launching its Nkr7.7bn (€805m) flotation on the Oslo Børs on Monday.

If the Norwegian bond market’s light touch approach to documentation means investors lose out, the Nordic aspiration to become the venue of choice for Northern Europe's high yield issuers may never materialise.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Five new investment grade corporate bond deals were priced on Tuesday and, while pricing was competitive, none of the issuers allowed for any growth in the size of the deals as all five used a no-grow strategy.

The spike in volatility and soggy performance of recent IPOs did not deter a fresh wave of companies across Europe from bringing new stock market listings this week.

Norsk Hydro has made a binding offer to buy Rio Tinto’s remaining European aluminium business, as the spurt of M&A activity shows little sign of slowing.

Santander Consumer Bank AS sold its first ever five year senior bond in the euro market on Monday, raising €500m of new funding with five times as much in orders in tow.

Hurtigruten, the Norwegian cruise operator owned by TDR Capital, has agreed on final pricing on a €660m leveraged loan facility, raising enough debt to repay all its high yield bonds.

Kommunalbanken has announced a dollar floater trade to launch on Tuesday, just ahead of the Federal Open Markets Committee’s rate decision on Wednesday.

Norway's SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt this week issued the first covered bond secured solely on energy-efficient green residential homes. The transaction not only provides a solid template for other Norwegian borrowers, but may well lay the groundwork for covered bond and RMBS issuers throughout Europe.

Sterling issuance was thin this week relative to its scorching start to the year although there was still room for Kommunalbanken to print its largest ever deal in the currency. Strong supply is on the way from the UK Debt Management Office but while demand is as good as some bankers have ever seen, other deals may be limited by technical factors.