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.
Swedbank on Monday priced a Eu750m (Skr6.64bn) five year senior unsecured transaction in its third visit to the benchmark debt capital markets this year, and, at 52bp over, the deal was the tightest five year senior unsecured euro benchmark to date in 2014.
Pohjola Bank priced a Eu1.5bn dual tranche senior unsecured deal on Monday that comprised a fixed rate issue in the seven year “sweet spot”, but FIG flow activity was otherwise limited this week.
Swedbank priced the second Nordic bank capital trade of the year on Monday, a Eu750m 10 year non-call five Tier 2 transaction that an official at the issuer said was launched in anticipation of final capital requirements from the Swedish FSA.
Swedbank and Nordea kicked off the Nordic fourth quarter reporting season this week, with a miss on net profit leading to profits coming in short of consensus expectations.
Danske Bank’s second quarter results announced today (Thursday) beat expectations but the bank lowered its guidance for the full year. The Danish lender reported after a slew of results from other major Nordic banks in July.
Roughly 50% of investors holding government guaranteed bonds targeted by Swedbank for repurchase participated in a tender offer that closed on Monday, a take-up rate that an official at the issuer said made for a worthwhile exercise.
Swedbank has launched a cash any-and-all tender offer for the remaining stock of its publicly placed government guaranteed bonds to optimise the bank’s funding structure, with the bonds already having been refinanced.
Moody’s has upgraded Swedbank because it considers that the bank’s credit profile has strengthened, and Fitch revised the outlook on Danske Bank from negative to stable due to lower risk from its Ireland exposure.