Svenska Handelsbanken sold its first public sterling issue of the year on Tuesday, a well-received £400m three year floating rate note.

Mats Anderson, Cheuvreux bank equity analyst, reviews the first round of Nordic Q1 results.

SpareBank 1 SMN today (Thursday) emerged with a senior unsecured transaction that it had been targeting since at least October, when it went on the first of two roadshows, while Stadshypotek priced the first Nordic sterling covered bond on Monday.

Svenska Handelsbanken launched a £300m (Eu371m/Skr3.21bn) 10 year senior unsecured issue on Monday, the Swedish bank’s longest dated deal in the UK currency.

Ten Nordic banks had their outlooks revised from stable to negative by Standard & Poor’s on Monday because of increasing economic risks arising from a longer than expected recession in the euro-zone.

Svenska Handelsbanken subsidiary Stadshypotek priced the longest dated Yankee covered bond since the financial crisis on Tuesday, a $1.5bn seven year deal that came only two business days after the issuer made its Kangaroo debut, while Swedbank made a $1bn senior dollar debut.

Sweden’s Stadshypotek is reopening the Kangaroo market for covered bonds with a dual tranche five year deal that is only the second to be sold into Australia by a European issuer since the crisis.

Svenska Handelsbanken sold a Eu1bn 10 year fixed rate senior unsecured benchmark into a buoyant market this (Thursday) morning, as syndicate officials declared covered bonds open after UniCredit sold the first Italian benchmark in a year on Tuesday.