Sweden

Morgan Stanley managing director Tobias Åkermark is leaving the US firm to become head of Nordic banking and country CEO for Sweden at Barclays.

Sweden became the latest European sovereign to access the ultra-long end of the curve this week as it launched its first 50 year bond, opening up the long end of the krona curve for other highly rated names.

Covered bonds issued this week by SCBC and Bank of New Zealand were thinly oversubscribed and illustrated that investors are still sensitive to price, albeit that demand was good for a small green debut from Eika Boligkreditt and a tap from Oma Savings Bank.

Bank of Montreal is seeking investor consent to switch from referencing Libor to Sonia on its sterling covered bond, following similar moves from other borrowers. Different calculation methods are emerging for the transition.

Swedish Covered Bond Corporation’s (SCBC) benchmark eight year deal, syndicated on Monday, was slow to build and, even though the final spread looked fine, the process clearly showed that investors are reticent to buy deals at prevailing levels.

Dometic Group, the Swedish maker of appliances for boats and camper vans, has successfully completed a Skr3.35bn (€331m) M&A financing.

Sweden’s national debt office announced on Thursday that it will extend its government bond curve to 50 years via a syndication in June.

Finnish financial services group Sampo has offloaded €1.37bn of shares in Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic region, as part of its planned exit from the group.

Sinch, the Swedish cloud-based communications services company, has raised Skr9.4bn (€926m) to fund M&A opportunities following an overnight share sale anchored by major investors.

The financial institutions bond market in euros was on hold on Tuesday, as European issuers saw no reason to rush into doing deals while global equities were selling off and interest rates were being buffeted by expectations of inflation.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes in early May.

Swedish property website Hemnet has succeeded in a difficult IPO market, its shares rising 50% on its first day of trading in Stockholm.