The Swedish Covered Bond Corporation closed books yesterday (Thursday) on a Eu1bn five year benchmark, which was priced at 35bp over mid-swaps after guidance of the 35bp area.

Leads Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Danske Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS accumulated Eu1.2bn in orders for the Eu1bn no-grow trade by the time books were closed at 1345 CET.

“It went bang on,” said a banker from one of the leads. “It was a transaction that was like many other Nordics, in that it was priced at a level where we knew there was interest.

“We probably priced it on balance between where there was demand, but not massive demand. The pricing was very tight to the secondary curve.”

An SCBC February 2015 trading at 25bp mid and a March 2017 trading at 43bp mid were used as pricing comparables, he said. Other Swedish issues in the same part of the curve included Stadshypotek October 2014s at 19bp over and April 2015s at 26bp mid, and Nordea February 2014s at 14bp over mid-swaps, November 2015s at 32bp over, and January 2017s at 38bp over.

A syndicate official away from the leads said that although the pricing looked punchy, the leads appeared to have had no problems in getting the deal away.

The lead banker suggested the only negative in the execution could have been that the five year maturity was a bit overcrowded.

“That’s nothing to do with SCBC,” he added. “It’s the market in general.”

Nordics took 38%, Germany and Austria 25%, Switzerland 11%, UK and Ireland 6%, Asia 5%, the Benelux 4%, and other Europe 11%. Banks took 46%, fund managers 22%, insurance companies 5%, central banks and supranationals 24%, and retail banks 3%.