Norway

DnB Nor’s Eu1.5bn three year covered bond proved a hit with investors yesterday (Wednesday), attracting Eu3.8bn of orders in three hours, enabling the leads to tighten pricing from the 3bp area guidance to 2bp over mid-swaps.

DnB Nor Boligkreditt’s second ever covered bond, a three year deal, sold out quickly this (Wednesday) morning, in stark contrast to its five year debut in June, which hit the market just as it was turning south.

DnB Nor Boligkreditt is expected to launch a benchmark sized euro denominated covered bond this week, its second, having mandated Barclays Capital, SG CIB and UniCredit as lead managers.

DnB Nor Boligkreditt debuted in the Swiss franc market yesterday (Wednesday), selling a Sfr500m (Eu250m) issue split equally into five and seven year tranches through Credit Suisse.

In the UniCredit* Nordic covered bond roundtable participants discussed the boom in euro issuance from the region, and what differences and similarities there are between issuers and markets.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt priced its debut covered bond this (Tuesday) morning, a Eu1.5bn three year transaction that has won plaudits for its unhurried execution.

Norway's Terra Boligkreditt sneaked into the market on Friday to sell its inaugural covered bond ahead of Sparebank 1’s debut in the euro market today (Monday), pricing a Sfr225m deal.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt has closed the books on its inaugural covered bond and will price it at the tight end of guidance and the upper end of its size range later today (Monday) or tomorrow.

While Nordic issuers have not been able to completely avoid the recent turmoil in the covered bond market, their credit quality and relative scarcity have served them well, and investors’ enthusiasm for their paper has enabled them to achieve funding levels as good as, if not better than, expected.

With the key Norwegian piece slotting into place next to Sweden and Finland, all that is needed is Denmark to complete the Nordic covered bond jigsaw. Bankers say that the region may also emerge as a test-bed for the next generation of products in terms of geographical diversification, such as multi-jurisdictional deals with mortgages in the cover pool drawn from a number of countries. Philip Moore reports.