Svenska Handelsbanken

The Swedish Covered Bond Corporation mandated leads for a euro covered bond benchmark as market participants prepare for another hectic week, following a substantial curve steepening this week.

Moody’s has assigned a provisional Aaa rating to Stadshypotek’s Danish covered bond programme. The issuer has three other programmes backed by Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian collateral. All four programmes are established under Swedish law.

Finland’s largest private lessor, VVO Group, sold its second euro bond on Monday, with orders coming from Nordic and, for the first time, other European investors.

Stadshypotek attracted a wealth of demand on Monday for its first covered bond backed by Finnish mortgages, and priced the deal much tighter than initially indicated with few investors falling out.

Shares in Internationella Engelska Skolan, a leading Swedish international school operator, traded as much as 44% above their initial price on Thursday morning after the company completed its $70m IPO on the Nasdaq Stockholm.

Stadshypotek attracted a robust following for its first covered bond backed by Finnish assets, and even though the final spread was much tighter than leads initially indicated, few investors fell out.

Swedish banks may have to pay more than their European peers to issue Additional Tier One (AT1) and Tier Two bonds, after the country’s government included plans to tax the securities in its 2017 budget.

Chr. Hansen, the Danish bioscience company, has added two non-Nordic banks to its core syndicated loan in a €700m refinancing.

The gap to repay a €2.7bn bridge facility that supports HeidelbergCement's purchase of Italcementi is set to close once the former cashes in the sale of its West Virginia factory.

Handelsbanken sold its entire 6.8% stake in Industrivärden, the Swedish investment company that owns 25% of the bank, for Skr4.49bn ($536m), unwinding the last significant cross-shareholding between Industrivarden and its portfolio of companies.

Shares in SSAB, the Nordic steel producer, have risen by 11% since the company announced the completion of its oversubscribed Skr5bn ($599m) rights issue on Friday.

Cloetta, the Swedish confectionery company, has agreed Skr3.7bn ($430m) of unsecured loans with a group of four Nordic banks, its first ever syndicated loan.