Sweden

Caja Rural de Navarra (CRN) mandated leads on Tuesday for a €500m seven year sustainable covered bond which is likely be launched on Wednesday. At the same time, Landshypotek Bank AB mandated leads for a roadshow to present its green framework ahead of a five year Swedish krona covered bond benchmark.

The investment grade corporate euro bond market had shown a steady return to strength after Easter, but Thursday's five-deal spree tested its resolve . The market last saw that many deals on March 15 – a day described by one syndicate banker as a repricing point.

Vehicle makers and their finance arms continued their recent dominance of Europe’s investment grade corporate bond market. Renault, Volkswagen-owned Scania and Peugeot’s joint venture with Santander, PSA Banque, all priced deals on the same day this week, after three issues from their German peers in the previous seven days.

Covered bonds issued by Swedish Covered Bond Corp and Overseas Chinese Banking Corp on Wednesday were thinly oversubscribed though investor preference was clearly slanted towards the most defensive five year Swedish offering.

This week has not looked like anyone’s ideal opportunity for issuing corporate bonds in Europe, especially a challenging debut hybrid with a speculative grade rating. But Akelius, the Swedish housing company, saw a chance and pushed ahead.

Covered bond investors have “had enough of tight spreads" said a lead manager. as demonstrated on Tuesday by the contrasting fortunes of deals from Lansforsakringar Hypotek AB (LF Hyp) and Aareal Bank. At the same time, the European Central Bank continued to scale back its order.

The sterling SSA market snapped back into life with a flurry of new deals after a quiet few weeks — although bankers lamented that the issuance door may have closed just as quickly as it opened.

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The Province of Alberta printed a strong 10 year dollar benchmark on Thursday — the first in that maturity from an SSA since late January — leading the way for others to follow, said SSA bankers. Elsewhere, five years was very much in vogue in the dollar market — although there were some signs of investor fatigue by the end of the week, despite more issuers being expected to look at the tenor next week.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation on Wednesday priced what bankers away from the deal said was a “very strong trade”, as it printed in the same five year tenor that has brought success for SSAs over the last few weeks. But one borrower is set to attempt a tenor that has not been visited since late January.

SSA borrowers are piling up in dollars. Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) will bring a five year benchmark on Wednesday, coming on the heels of Oesterreichische Kontrollbank’s (OeKB) own deal in the tenor on Tuedsay.

Two SSA borrowers readied trades in the dollar market on Monday, lining up for a busy week of issuance.