NIB issues USD 1bn five-year global benchmark

On 12 July, NIB priced a new five-year global USD 1 billion benchmark issue. The transaction is NIB’s second USD benchmark in 2018.

The issue has a final maturity of 19 July 2023, pays a semi-annual coupon of 2.875% and has an issue price of 99.792%, to give a spread of +17.1 bps over the UST 2.625% due June 2023, equivalent to mid-swaps plus 3 bps.

The final order book reached above USD 1.6 billion, with 45 investors participating in the transaction. The majority of demand came from the EMEA region, receiving 56% of allocations, followed by Asia and the Americas with 25% and 19% respectively.

By investor type, banks and central banks were the largest investor groups, receiving 43% and 42% of the allocations respectively, followed by asset managers with 8% and insurance and pension funds with 7%.

“The NIB team have built an exceptional investor following over the last few years and clearly reaped the benefit with this very well-timed transaction. Their ability to move the spread 2bps from initial price thoughts and consequently price with no new issue concession speaks volumes to strength of NIB’s global support. Given the volatile market backdrop, their achievement is particularly impressive”, said Kerr Finlayson, Head of SSA Syndicate at RBC Capital Markets

“NIB is very pleased with this new five-year USD benchmark transaction. We have achieved our objective, and throughout the trade, we had very good support from investors, 45 orders in the book and a volume of more than USD 1.6bn. We have been following the market for several weeks, and finally this week, we decided to take advantage of a clear issuance window. We saw good demand for a mid-curve transaction, which also matched our maturity preference for a five-year transaction. NIB could have issued a EUR denominated benchmark at approximately the same cost, but we wanted to maintain our strategic presence in the USD market”, says Alexander Ruf, Director of Funding and Investor Relations at Nordic Investment Bank.

See a joint press release on the bond transaction PDF here.

Bond Summary Terms
Issuer:	Nordic Investment Bank (NIB)
Rating:	Aaa (Stable) by Moody’s Investor Services, AAA (Stable) by Standard & Poor’s
Issue amount:	USD 1 billion (no-grow)
Pricing date:	12 July 2018
Settlement date:	19 July 2018
Coupon:	2.875% payable semi-annually
Maturity date:	19 July 2023
Re-offer spread:	Mid-swaps + 3 bps / UST 2.625% 06/23 + 17.1 bps
Re-offer price / yield:	99.792% / 2.920% s.a.
Format:	SEC Registered Global
Joint lead managers:	Citi, HSBC, RBCCM, TD

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact

Mr Jens Hellerup, Senior Director, Head of Funding and Investor Relations, at +358 961 811 401, jens.hellerup@nib.int