Norway

Storebrand Kredittforetak on Friday issued the first tranche off a new five and a half year fixed rate covered bond of up to Nkr2bn with a yield of 5.95% per annum. The issue is the Norwegian institution’s fourth under a programme that was established in the spring of this year.

EuroWeek, in partnership with UniCredit, recently held a Nordic roundtable where major issuers discussed their experiences during the past year and how they have coped during the crisis.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt and the Swedish Covered Bond Corp showed the new realities of the covered bond market this week, taking spreads to new wides to win over investors. The Cover spoke to officials at the two institutions about the thinking behind their new issues.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt demonstrated that the five year part of the curve is open to the right deals by pricing a Eu1bn transaction this (Wednesday) lunchtime. The new issue also showed that covered bond issuers may find that paying up is the only way to compete for investors’ attention, as demonstrated by the level at which a potential new issue is being soft-sounded.

In brief: Sparebanken Vest is set to join the Norwegian covered bond market, having set up Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt AS. The bank has said that it plans to launch its first issue this year.

Deutsche Bank may have come first in the all benchmarks ranking for the first half of 2008, but it was by no means the strongest across all markets. Here The Cover reveals the top banks in each of the biggest sectors and examines where the leading banks’ weaknesses lie.

Norway’s Storebrand Kredittforetak priced its debut euro issue yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, a Eu500m two year issue. The deal attracted strong demand from Scandinavian accounts.

Norway’s Storebrand opened books on its non-benchmark euro debut this (Wednesday) morning, with the deal expected to price at the upper end of its size range this afternoon.

Glitnir Bank ASA, the Norwegian arm of the Icelandic-headquartered banking group, has met all its refinancing needs for the year through the sale of Nkr7bn (Eu890m) of covered bonds by BN Boligkreditt.

Norway’s DnB Nor Boligkreditt priced its new Eu2bn three year covered bond at 15bp over mid-swaps yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. The issuer announced that it was pleased with the final size and to have continued building its curve.

Norway’s DnB Nor Boligkreditt opened books this morning on a new three year euro benchmark with pricing fixed at 15bp over mid-swaps, after shadow bookbuilding yesterday afternoon at a slightly tighter level.