Danske Bank completed its first euro benchmark flow funding exercise of the year yesterday (Wednesday), a Eu750m three year senior unsecured floating rate note felt to be best suited to a softer market, while SEB was today out with the fourth Nordic Tier 2 issue of the year.
Dankse was first out of the blocks in a busy FIG market this week, tapping the market early Monday morning with a Eu500m (Dkr3.73bn) no-grow 12 year non-call seven Tier 2 issue that an official at the bank said wrapped up adjustments it had wanted to make to its Tier 2 capital levels.
Standard & Poor’s upgraded Realkredit Danmark senior secured issuance yesterday (Wednesday) following its lifting of parent bank Danske’s rating from A- to A Tuesday of last week, which came as part of wide-ranging BRRD-inspired bank rating actions.
The Nordic first quarter reporting season is well underway, with Danske today (Thursday) the latest to announce results. Mats Anderson, equity research analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, says that results have been marginally better than expected, boding well for the rest of the year.
S&P upgraded Danske and took rating actions on Swedish banks on Tuesday in connection with a raft of actions on European banks to reflect less assumed government support given new resolution frameworks, and also flagged plans to incorporate this into covered bond ratings.
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.
Danske Bank could soon emerge with the first Nordic CoCo transaction, after having yesterday (Wednesday) announced that it will next week meet with investors in connection with a potential euro Additional Tier 1.
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.
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.