Realkredit Danmark met with strong demand for its first syndicated sale of a Swedish krona covered bond on Tuesday, a Skr6.2bn (Eu703m, Dkr5.25bn) dual tranche issue that lent more duration to Sweden-targeted Danish issuance, with October 2016 and October 2017 tranches offered.
LF Hypotek priced the first Swedish euro benchmark covered bond of the year on Tuesday, a Eu500m no-grow seven year that was one of three deals in the market on the same day in what was a busy week for euro covered bonds.
Danske Bank opened the market for contingent capital for Nordic banks with a bang yesterday (Wednesday), drawing some Eu13bn of demand for its much anticipated AT1 transaction and achieving the lowest coupon to date for the new type of hybrid bank capital.
Realkredit Danmark released its 2013 full year results on Friday, reporting a Dkr158m increase in net profit to Dkr2.612bn (Eu350m), up 6% compared with 2012. It said that this captures a positive trend in core activities as well as higher funding costs and higher impairments.
Danske and DNB released fourth quarter results today (Thursday) that reflect “various stages of recovery” while reporting by Handelsbanken and SEB yesterday confirm the strength of the Swedish banking sector, said a KeplerCheuvreux analyst.
Financial institutions bond issuance was noticeably down on the busy start to the year this week, with the latest deals showing that core issuers should be mindful of the need for larger new issue premiums (NIPs) and/or consider subordinated debt opportunities, according to bankers.
Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt sold a Eu500m no-grow five year covered bond on Thursday of last week (9 January), having seen “no reason to wait” to tap the market early in the year given strong market conditions, an official at the issuer told Nordic FIs & Covered.
Nordea Bank Finland got the ball rolling in euro benchmark covered bonds in 2014 when it priced one of the first deals of the year on Tuesday, with Eu8.5bn across nine issues priced by today (Thursday), including one for Norway’s Sparebanken Vest.
Moody’s revised the outlook on Danske Bank’s rating from stable to positive on Tuesday because it expects the bank’s profitability to continue to improve while a high level of capital and a prudent risk profile are still maintained.
Danske Bank priced a Sfr150m 12 year non-call seven Tier 2 issue on Monday in a follow-up to a Nordic-targeted “Trekroner” subordinated debt sale last week, and in line with stated plans to explore Tier 2 issuance in European currencies.