Norway

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.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt and Aareal Bank issued well oversubscribed covered bonds on Wednesday, paying virtually no new issue concession. Both banks took advantage of enduring demand for five year tenors, while for Aareal the issue was cheaper than the European Central Bank’s term liquidity.

A quartet of public sector borrowers are set to cram into the front end of the dollar curve on Wednesday, as bankers outlined a triple whammy of factors driving the squeeze.

Norwegian covered bonds could be in line for a ratings bump following implementation of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) said Standard and Poor’s. Separately, tighter Norwegian mortgage lending criteria should dampen house price inflation but it still remains unsustainably high, said Fitch.

DNB Boligkreditt got the Nordic covered bond market off to a blistering start on Wednesday with a €2bn five year deal that leads were able to tighten by 5bp from initial guidance.

Tonight, Nordic Nanovector, the Norwegian developer of radio-immunotherapeutics for haematological cancers, is raising Nkr527m ($63m) to finance clinical trials, by placing new shares with institutional investors.

In a volatile year for European equity capital markets, with issuance down sharply, the Nordic region has been a bright spot, enjoying its second biggest ever year for issuance. Bankers believe that momentum will carry into 2017.

Arcus, the Norwegian distiller owned by private equity group Ratos, made its debut on the Nasdaq Oslo on Thursday after its Nkr1.7bn (€196m) IPO that was multiple times covered.

Kommunalbanken raised A$40m ($29.7m) from an Australian dollar tap on Tuesday after sole-arranger Daiwa found two more Japanese life insurers to take an earlier reverse enquiry above the Norwegian agency's minimum size of A$30m.

In another sign of the cautious mood gripping the IPO market in Western Europe, Varta AG, the German microbatteries maker, has called off its €150m Frankfurt IPO. Yet the Nordic market continues to show its resilience, as three successful flotations reach their conclusion this week.