Sweden

A government minister in one of Europe’s major economies has told GlobalCapital that green bonds could be a “complement” to the country’s existing climate change mitigation policies.

Mölnlycke, the Swedish maker of wound dressings and surgical gloves, issued a €500m eight year bond on Monday, as the corporate bond market’s awakening from earnings blackouts continued apace.

Two dollar issuers printed without tightening from initial price thoughts on Wednesday, with one opting for a benchmark and the other tapping central bank demand for floaters.

A trio of SSA issuers made moves to mop up short end dollar demand on Tuesday. NRW Bank printed a $1bn bond and two others mandated for deals.

Mölnlycke, the Swedish maker of wound dressings and surgical gloves, issued a €500m eight year bond on Monday, as the corporate bond market’s awakening from earnings blackouts continued apace.

Three issuers launched covered bond benchmarks in euros this week, down from nine in the previous week, as borrowers anticipated an improvement in market conditions and lower new issue concessions.

Swedish lender Swedbank kept Australian dollar supply ticking over on Tuesday, pricing its first bond in the currency since 2008.

Nordic companies are showing a strong willingness to adopt the renminbi for payments which is a creating an opportunity for Sweden’s SEB Paula da Silva, head of transaction services at SEB, told GlobalRMB at the recent Sibos conference held in Singapore.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) issued a €1bn seven year Swedish covered bond on Monday and attracted enough interest to tighten pricing, something that few issuers were able to do recently. However, even with double the concession DNB paid, the Swedish borrower attracted much less demand than the Norwegian one. SEB’s curve has been marked 2-3bp wider following the deal.

Covered bonds worth almost €7bn were issued this week but, by virtue of its size, oversubscription ratio and breadth of demand, Nationwide Building Society’s €1bn deal stood out.

Swedbank returned to the sterling covered bond market to issue its second sterling deal this year. Though the issuer paid a minimal concession, the spread was almost double what it paid in August and the order book almost half.

A European agency is set to bring a green bond on Tuesday as optimism grows that SRI volumes could pick up even more over the next two months.