Sweden

Sweden has mandated SEB as structuring adviser on its debut green bond, to be issued in 2020. The announcement on Thursday morning for the first time puts a definite date on when Sweden will issue. The process of considering the idea has already taken nearly three years.

Investors have not completely shunned Libor-linked floating rate notes from public sector borrowers, as a trade from Swedish Export Credit Corp showed this week.

Deals set to be issued by the Province of Ontario and Development Bank of Japan on Wednesday attracted good demand, reflecting their higher yield relative to other dollar supra and agency bonds.

Kommuninvest kicked off the dollar market this week with a $1.25bn blowout, despite it being at record tight levels over Treasuries, according to a banker on the deal. Following on from Kommuninvest’s deal, a wide range of SSAs look to print across the curve, including rare issuer IDB Invest with its five year dollar bond debut.

Shares in EQT, the Swedish private equity firm, popped 25% on day one after its IPO was priced on the Nasdaq Stockholm on Tuesday — after what sources called a “targeted” IPO process.

The Province of British Columbia has weathered volatility from the fallout of last week's meeting of the US Federal Reserve to return to the dollar market for the first time in four years. Another rare SSA issuer, IDB Invest, also plans a return to the dollar market, with investor calls set up for this week ahead of its five year debut.

The City of Gothenburg plans to up its green bond issuance to two a year as part of Nordic public issuers’ wider push in the format. The Swedish municipality made its first visit to the green bond market this year on Tuesday, using its new green bond framework.

The City of Gothenburg sold a new dual tranche green bond on Tuesday, raising a combined Skr1.8bn across fixed and floating rate tranches. The note was the first printed under its new updated green bond framework.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2019 funding programmes by the middle of September.

The €1.2bn IPO of Swedish private equity group EQT was covered throughout its price range, less than two hours into the bookbuilding process on Friday, according to market sources.

Swedish agency Kommuninvest doubled the size of its June 2023 green bond on Tuesday through a Skr3bn ($309.8m) tap. The tap was issued with a negative yield — rare for the Swedish krona market — and is the issuer’s first negative yielding green print since October 2016.

Swedish credit management company Intrum this week completed a €850m issue of new senior notes, pricing at 3% and increasing the size of the offering from the initial €750m. UK-based gambling giant International Game Technology also dipped into the “most issuer-friendly market ever” with €500m bond.