SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt (SpaBol) led a Norwegian start to the week with a EUR1bn five year benchmark today (Monday), with Møre Boligkreditt issuing a EUR250m five year deal, and DNB expected tomorrow with its inaugural green covered bond, in the seven year maturity.

Leads BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Danske and UniCredit announced SpaBol’s new issue this morning with guidance of the mid-swaps plus 4bp area. Guidance was revised to 3bp, plus or minus 1bp will price in range, with orders amounting to more than EUR1.1bn after a couple of hours of bookbuilding, and the spread was then fixed at 2bp over with books over EUR1.2bn.

“It was a nice result and everybody is quite pleased,” said a syndicate banker at one of the leads. “Today’s market backdrop was quite beneficial, although it was not the kind of blow-out we might have seen at the beginning of the year.

“It is still not the easiest market and investors can be a little picky, looking for a good new issue premium.”

Bankers at and away from the leads put the new issue premium at re-offer at around 5bp, in line with the levels seen in the most comparable deals of last week. The lead syndicate banker said spread sensitivity among investors was quite low at the initial guidance, allowing for the 2bp tightening.

A banker away from the leads said the deal seemed to have gone quite well, with the pricing being in line with his expectations, although – in line with the lead’s comment regarding prevailing conditions – he noted that the level of oversubscription was modest.

Møre Boligkreditt followed up a European roadshow last week with its sub-benchmark today, via LBBW and Nordea. Following initial guidance of the mid-swaps plus 10bp area for the five year deal, pricing was fixed at plus 7bp with orders above EUR350m, excluding joint lead manager interest.

DNB Boligkreditt is expected to launch its first green covered bond tomorrow (Tuesday), having this morning after – SpaBol’s launch – announced that it is planning a seven year deal via Crédit Agricole, DNB, ING, LBBW and UniCredit. The Norwegian bank has been presenting its new programme to investors after announcing it two weeks ago.

Bankers at the leads saw DNB November 2024s at minus 2bp, mid, and September 2026s at minus 1bp, and also noted the level SpaBol had come at today.

DNB’s green bond framework is similar to that of SpaBol, with both having been influenced by feedback from the Climate Bonds Initiative, and SpaBol’s debut issue finally received CBI certification last Monday (4 June).