Sweden

Two Nordic telecoms companies sold euro corporate bonds this week after both spending nearly two years on the sidelines. Both employed no-grow strategies, and Swedish company Telia sold the longest maturity corporate bond deal of 2019 so far.

Svenska Handelsbanken picked banks on Wednesday to arrange the sale of a new additional tier one in the dollar market, with the dust yet to settle around Banco Santander’s decision to extend the life of one of its instruments.

On Tuesday, Swedish telecoms company Telia sold the longest maturity corporate bond deal of 2019 so far. Telia had not been to the market for nearly two years, but has a history of long-dated issuance.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2019 funding programmes halfway through the first quarter.

Tip Trailer, the Dutch trailer services company, has refinanced its revolving credit facility (RCF), ramping the size up to €967m as it gathers funding for a range of growth plans.

Covered bond investors could not get enough of Swedish seven year deals issued this week by Swedbank and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. But whether record order books are being inflated remains a moot point.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken followed Swedbank with a seven year deal, printing a well oversubscribed €1.25bn covered bond on Thursday flat to its curve. The deal comes as Citi research suggested excess demand for covered bonds issued this month is at a record level.

Artificial Solutions, the Swedish software company that developed conversational artificial intelligence, may sell new shares on the main Swedish market to finance its growth, once it has obtained a listing on Nasdaq First North, according to its CEO.

After a string of very successful 10 year covered bond trades, it was clear that seven and five year deals would “fly like hell,” said a syndicate manager on one of the deals issued on Tuesday by Swedbank and Aareal Bank.

Fearful of missing out and in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into higher yielding covered bonds offered by Canadian, Australian and Swedish issuers this week. A negative new issue premium Royal Bank of Canada’s five year epitomised the state of investor frenzy.

SCBC chose to issue its first green covered bond in its home currency this week, saving itself a few basis points compared with euros — where a green covered bond is now considered 'feasible'.

Fearful of missing out and, in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into six covered bonds on Tuesday with a combined value of more than €6bn.Royal Bank of Canada’s deal epitomised the state of investor frenzy as it was able to issue the largest deal of the year with a negative new issue premium.