Norway

GlobalCapital revealed the winners of its Syndicated Loan, Leveraged Finance and Private Placement Awards 2016 at its 14th Annual Loans Dinner on Wednesday. A dozen borrowers — corporate, bank and sovereign — from all over the EMEA region attended the dinner of 250 people at the Guildhall in London. The awards were as ever based on a poll of loan market participants, conducted at the end of 2016. As such, they are the only awards that recognise achievement in the EMEA loan market based on the opinion of the market. This year we added two high profile new awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award and Most Impressive Growing Force in the Loan Market. Participants at the dinner supported the Loan Syndicate Managers’ Forum’s chosen charity, Make Sense of It, which supports research into, and sufferers from, multiple sclerosis. GlobalCapital congratulates all the winners and nominees.

A triumvirate of covered bond issuers from Denmark and Norway enjoyed stellar demand for their euro covered bond benchmarks this week.

Eika Boligkreditt showed it was immune to any concern over a possible Norwegian house price correction, as it priced a €500m seven year covered bond on Thursday flat to its curve.

Eika Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a €500m seven year covered bond from Norway, the second in that size and tenor that will be issued this week following one from Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt.

Investors wasted no time posting orders for Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt’s covered bond issued on Tuesday, a deal which ticked all the right boxes for maturity and spread, despite concerns from Moody's about the sustainability of Norwegian house prices.

Santander Consumer Bank Norway was nearly five times oversubscribed for a €500m three year on Monday, sucking up demand for an undersupplied part of the curve.

Cicero, the climate research institute at Oslo University, has produced a report to help investors work out where they face risks from climate change, with red, orange and yellow flags for the severity and immediacy of threats.

After four busy weeks, European corporate bond market on Wednesday was deserted but for a benchmark deal from Avinor, the Norwegian state-owned airport operator.

RenoNorden, the struggling Norwegian waste management company, on Monday launched a highly dilutive rights issue to avoid breaking its debt covenants after losses in 2016, but investors appeared to welcome the news, sending the shares up 6.4%.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

SpareBank1 Boligkreditt, Aareal Bank and Nordea took advantage of strong demand for five year paper to issue oversubscribed deals this week, paying virtually no new issue concession.

One of the busiest days ever in the public sector dollar market ended with five issuers sitting on deals printed at the top end of their size targets and with pricing tightened from initial thoughts. Another borrower is already out for Thursday business and bankers predict that conditions are so “incredible” that deal flow will stay healthy into next week — no matter what policy statements incoming US president Donald Trump makes at his inauguration on Friday.