Investors with a hankering for Norwegian krone in their portfolio got an opportunity to fill their boots this week, as Ontario tapped bond markets with its third issue in the European currency.

As part of a parade of provincial offerings in foreign currencies that also saw Manitoba borrowing $600-million (U.S.), Ontario reopened an issue of medium terms notes in krone that pay 3 per cent interest. The province sold debt worth NOK500M (or about $83-million Canadian). Desjardins Securities said in a report that this marked the issue's third re-opening since its inception on April 30, bringing total outstanding to NOK1.75B (approximately $290-million.)

The Manitoba global issue on Wednesday featured the province selling five-year bonds that pay 2.625 per cent interest, or 53.6 basis points over the comparable U.S. Treasury.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, CIBC World Markets and RBC Dominion Securities led the Manitoba financing.

It's been a busy two weeks for provincial offerings, as Desjardins said that last week, "activity was nothing but frantic," with five offerings totaling $2.87-billion in new debt. "This was the second highest weekly pace of domestic issuance on record, just shy of the $3.4-billion mark established in April 2009," said a report from the investment bank.