Denmark

Denmark’s government debt management office has formally proposed issuing green bonds in which the green element can be stripped off and traded separately — something that would be a world first, and would ask difficult questions of the green bond market. The DMO said investors had welcomed the idea.

Nasdaq has developed a new method for pricing Danish covered bonds, which are typically more difficult to price than fixed-rate euro deals because of prepayment risks of mortgages in the underlying pool and negative convexity associated with callable deals.

Financial institutions are rushing to sell new deals in the euro market, fearful that the window for issuance will close after Thanksgiving in the US next week.

Saxo Bank gave investors a chance to pick up one of the highest yields on offer in the additional tier one (AT1) market in euros this week, albeit in a very small sub-benchmark size.

Demand for ground-breaking covered bonds issued on Wednesday by Deutsche Bank and Danish Ships Finance was adequate but both required hefty premiums — illustrating a higher degree of investor caution than had been expected.

All maturities are open for deals in the euro market, thanks to a widening in benchmark spreads over the past few weeks. SSA issuers are taking advantage of the conditions by issuing in a range of tenors.

Two SSA borrowers have will follow KommuneKredit's lead by issuing green bonds on Wednesday after the Danish agency announced and priced a deal on Tuesday.

Danish Ships Finance, Natixis Pfandbriefbank and Raiffeisen Bank International will keep the primary market busy with deals and roadshows this week. But the main focus will be on the size and spread that Deutsche Bank achieves for its innovative debut structured conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond that will be launched imminently.

Shares in Danish renewable energy firm Ørsted and in Salini Impregilo, the Italian construction company, continued to trade well this week, generating strong returns for block investors.

SEAS-NVE has sold around a quarter of its stake in Ørsted, the Danish renewable energy company that was privatised in 2016, raising Dkr5.33bn (€741m).

Investors staged a protest over pricing in the non-preferred senior bond market this week, causing one transaction to fail and putting two others at risk of falling flat. Comfortable with their returns for 2019 and happy to be able to choose from a glut of new bond offerings, funds have simply been happy to divert their attention elsewhere. Tyler Davies reports.

Danske Bank has made its second visit of the year to the euro tier two market, paying a much tighter spread for a deal that was otherwise identical to its earlier transaction. The Danish issuer has been subject to higher capital requirements in 2019, amid the fallout from a series of high profile money laundering investigations.