Swedbank

The Swedish National Debt Office (SNDO) promoted non-preferred debt as a way for Swedish banks to meet the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) on Thursday, establishing a favourable method for calculating the requirement and a manageable timeline for its implementation.

Shares in Diös Fastigheter, the Swedish property company, closed 4.5% higher on Thursday after it completed its Skr1.85bn ($209m) rights issue to partly finance the acquisition of a portfolio of mainly commercial and retail properties from Castellum in cities in northern Sweden.

Covered bond deals issued this week by Société Générale and Erste Bank showed that there is still good demand for bonds issued by national champions, even in the more difficult longer tenors.

Swedbank and Swedish Covered Bond Corporation rapidly attracted solid oversubscriptions for their €1bn five and seven year covered bonds that were priced with a minimal concession on Monday.

Swedbank followed BNP Paribas in issuing additional tier one debt in dollars this week, as the European banks looked to take advantage of unusually high investor engagement in December.

Swedbank became the third non-UK issuer to launch a sterling covered bond since September with a rare five year offer on Wednesday.

Swedbank became the third non-UK issuer to launch a sterling covered bond since September, when it launched a rare five year on Wednesday. The high number of UK bank sterling redemptions that are unlikely to be refinanced next year suggests sterling investors will be cash rich and receptive to similar supply.

Cable company Com Hem has been sounding investors since Wednesday for a new issue in Swedish krona to redeem its old Skr2.5bn bonds due 2019, adding Swedish momentum to the Nordic corporate high yield bond market.

A pair of Nordic public sector borrowers showed the strength of green bond market, printing a pair of well received trades, both of which were priced inside the issuers’ conventional bond curves.

Kommuninvest issued on Wednesday the largest ever green bond in Swedish kronor. The note offered a negative yield, and was still over 2.6 times subscribed. It was a fantastic example, the leads said, of a strong name issuing in a starved market.

Kommuninvest has selected banks for a bond expected to break the size record for green bonds denominated in Swedish krona.

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.