Snuff, puff and paper go to euroland
Salomon Smith Barney managing director Eirik Winter, head of the bank's Nordic capital markets desk, has every reason to be pleased. In mid-September his team held three out of four Eurobond mandates for Scandinavian corporates then preparing to come to the markets. A year ago, this level of Scandinavian activity would have been hard to imagine.
Overall, 1999 has been an exceptional year for European corporate Eurobond issuance and Scandinavia has been no exception.
A heady mix of rising merger & acquisition activity and the creation of a single-currency investor base at a time when loan margins are rising has challenged many of the region's corporates to find alternative methods of funding and many have chosen to issue Eurobonds for the first time. European investors' increasing appetite for corporate credit and the creation of a real credit market in Europe is radically changing...
