Norway

The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide a loan of up to €200m to Avinor, the Norwegian airport operator.

Covered bonds worth almost €7bn were issued this week but, by virtue of its size, oversubscription ratio and breadth of demand, Nationwide Building Society’s €1bn deal stood out.

The Norwegian covered bond borrower issued its second deal of the year on Wednesday. Though the final spread was on the generous side, and the book only just covered, the overall cost of funding was less than half what it paid in March.

Covered bonds issued this week by Nordea Finland and DNB Boligkreditt went surprisingly well as, despite being the largest ones on offer, they were the most highly oversubscribed and subsequently posted the best performance.

Germany

Swedbank and SR Boligkreditt defied tricky market conditions this week to respectively raise €1.25bn and €500m in five year covered bonds.

Norwegian lender, SR-Boligkreditt issued its first euro covered bond on Monday, a €500m five year. The transaction offered a tempting spread pick-up to where Sparebank Vest issued an identical transaction last week thereby ensuring a strong reception, despite challenging market conditions.

Covered bond issuers failed to take heed of poor market conditions and, just like lemmings, followed one another with poorly performing deals this week.

Statkraft, the Norwegian state electricity company, made a successful venture into an uncertain corporate bond market with a defensive €500m no-grow bond on Monday.

Four covered bonds have been issued so far this week, but only one deal from Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt was comfortably oversubscribed. The choice of tenor, deal size and generous spread ensured a solid reception, despite tough market conditions — which Credit Mutuel Arkea will face on Wednesday when it is expected to opens books for another covered bond.

Statkraft, the Norwegian state electricity company, made a successfully defensive venture into an uncertain corporate bond market with a €500m no-grow bond on Monday.

SR-Boligkreditt has mandated leads for a series of investor meetings with a view to issuing its first deal.