Pricing themselves out of the market

Nordic borrowers are inconsistent users of capital markets and when they do use them tend to concentrate on price above all else. With the advent of Emu likely to shift investors' attentions towards credit quality and away from currency arbitrage, this short-term approach to the market could hurt Nordic government and corporate issuers. Jules Stewart reports.

Return of the Viking raiders

Nordic borrowers have been moving into a period of consolidation over the past six months to a year and this does not make for happy international underwriters. The four Nordic countries – Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland – are achieving levels of financing they could not hope to obtain in the international capital markets and, as one London investment banker testily puts it, in the next two to three years “they will gradually disappear from the radar screens”.

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