Norway

A hungry euro market gorged on deals from France and the European Union on Tuesday, instilling confidence that a trio of trades on Wednesday’s menu will go well — despite two of them being in the same tenor.

The Norwegian lender has mandated leads for the seventh Norwegian euro benchmark to be issued this year and the fourth with a seven year maturity.

Covered bonds issued by DNB Boligreditt and Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) on Monday priced with minimal new issue concessions and showed that market conditions were strong. At the same time Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) opened books for the first Australian dollar covered bond this year.

Songa Offshore, the Norwegian oil drilling company that is going through a distressed debt restructuring, completed on Thursday its raising of new money with a convertible bond, getting the maximum size of $125m.

Norske Skogindustrier, the Norwegian manufacturer of paper for publication, announced on Thursday that GSO Capital and Cyrus Capital would provide new securitization and equity financing to save the company.

Songa Offshore, the Norwegian oil drilling company, has made a strong start to its attempt to raise $125m of new money with a convertible bond, as part of a distressed debt restructuring.

Norske Skog, the Norwegian producer of publishing paper, has told GlobalCapital that its plan to ensure its long term funding is going ahead, although Moody’s has warned of a default looming.

Two borrowers from Denmark and Norway launched their first euro denominated covered bonds this week, expanding the number of issuers to a new record.

North Energy, the Norwegian oil and gas exploration company, signed a Nkr950m($112m) exploration financing agreement on Tuesday with two banks.

John Fredriksen, the Norwegian shipping magnate, sold a Nkr4.4bn ($510m) block of shares in seafood firm Marine Harvest on Tuesday evening — a rare liquidity event in one of the few Norwegian stocks not exposed to oil.

Three covered bond issuers launched euro benchmarks on Wednesday with the inaugural transaction from United Overseas Bank of Singapore proving the main attraction. Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt and Belfius Bank also launched deals, with strong demand for the Belgian deal allowing the issuer to pay an extraordinarily tight new issue concession of 1bp.

Kommunalbanken on Wednesday sold the first five year dollar benchmark from an SSA in three weeks, printing a $1bn no-grow bond.