Norway

Kommunalbanken added to a stellar start to the year for sterling with a £350m trade — its largest ever trade in the currency. Cross currency basis swap levels meant the borrower capped the size of its deal despite building a nearly £550m book, according to leads — suggesting excess demand for other SSAs to tap this week.

Norway's SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt has issued the first covered bond secured solely on energy-efficient green homes. The €1bn transaction was priced almost flat to fair value and placed with a newly diversified group of investors.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt has mandated lead managers for a roadshow to market its first green covered bond. The move coincided with proposals from lawmakers in Luxembourg for a green covered bond framework.

DNB Boligkreditt and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce this week issued the first five year covered bonds of the year and found strong demand, even though there was a sensitivity around the final spread.

DNB Boligkreditt differentiated itself in a crowded covered bond market on Tuesday by issuing the first five year deal of 2018, a strategy that paid off, given it was also the largest deal of the year.

Issuers printed a slew of benchmarks in dollars, euros and sterling last week as the SSA market roared into action. Read on to see whether the first deals of the year won favour with our voters.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt has mandated lead managers for a roadshow to market it first green covered bond. The news comes amid German press articles suggesting lawmakers in Luxembourg are set to propose a green covered bond framework. BayernLB is also lining up a vanilla 10 year Pfandbrief for execution on Monday.

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Sbanken Boligkreditt, formally known as Skandiabanken, has said that it expects to take advantage of its newly established Euro Medium Term Note (MTN) programme for long-term funding to begin issuing euro denominated covered bonds.

Schibsted, the Norwegian media group, has raised Nkr2.7bn (€258m) of fresh equity in a block trade, to finance its growth in digital classified advertising. The book was very large, with around 180 investors.

Eika Boligkreditt closed the pricing gap to Norway’s national champion, DNB Boligkreditt, with a €500m seven year covered bond issued on Tuesday. At the same time Finland’s Oma Savings Bank mandated leads to market its inaugural deal.

Eika Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a €500m no-grow seven year, to be launched on Tuesday. The spread between Eika and DNB Boligkreditt is likely to have tightened substantially since the issuer last came to market in April 2016.