News
On 19 June Volkswagen Financial Services Australia (Volkswagen) (A-/A3) launched and priced a two-year A$100 million (US$78 million) transaction. The deal, which matures on June 22 2011 and carries a 7 per cent coupon, priced at 285 basis points over mid swap.
ASX Clearing Corporation (ASXCC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has flagged a possible US private placement (PP) deal. On 17 June the group was assigned a rating of AA- by Standard & Poor's (S&P) and tipped its hand, indicating it may seek a minimum of A$145 million equivalent from the US PP market.
On June 18 the Guarantee of State and Territory Borrowing Appropriation Bill 2009 was approved by the senate, with an amendment from the opposition. Market observers will be watching with interest how the semi-governments and the AOFM work out their issuance plans in an increasingly crowded market and in an environment where both the commonwealth and some state governments have announced substantial increases to their funding volumes.
On June 18 Kommunalbanken Norway (KBN) (AAA/Aaa) brought a second point to its Kauri curve, issuing NZ$100 million (US$63,475) of July 2014 bonds in a deal led by ANZ. The Kauri bonds priced at 65 basis points over the NZD five-year swap rate and offer a coupon of 5.75 per cent, to yield 5.94 per cent.
National Australia Bank (NAB) (AA/Aa1/AA) increased its unguaranteed May 4 2012 domestic bond by a total of A$1.3 billion (US$1.04 billion) on June 18, bringing the total outstanding in the line to a jumbo A$3.175 billion. The issuer says the majority of the tap was placed with real money investors.
On June 18 Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) (AA+/Aa1/AA+) priced its first domestic benchmark bond via bookbuild, with the issuer confirming that the new 2019 maturity will, like the rest of its outstanding lines, be covered by the government guarantee on state funding when that scheme is finalised.
ING Bank Australia (ING Australia) (AA-) priced its new five-year domestic bond under the terms of the Australian sovereign guarantee on June 17, netting A$2 billion (US$1.6 billion) across the fixed and floating tranches of the deal. The transaction priced at the expected rate of 65 basis points over swap and is the fourth benchmark Australian market deal from an offshore-parented bank in June 2009.
Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) (AA+/Aa1/AA+) will use the government guarantee on state borrowing to help it fill a funding task of A$22.54 billion (US$17.86 billion) for the financial year 2009/10. Queensland treasurer Andrew Fraser says the guarantee will be applied to all outstanding lines and while QTC intends to guarantee future issues it also "reserved the right to issue non-guaranteed bond lines".
The supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) Kangaroo market continues to surge ahead with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) (AAA/Aaa) pricing A$750 million in its new 2014 maturity Kangaroo deal – an increase from the minimum size at launch of A$300 million.
BNP Paribas (BNP) (AA/Aa1/AA) priced its first deal in the Australian market for over a decade on June 16 when it brought a total of A$1 billion (US$789.9 million) of fixed and floating rate three-year paper to market in unguaranteed format through its Australian branch. The transaction priced at 145 basis points over swap.
The state of New South Wales (NSW) and NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) (both AAA/Aaa/AAA) had their ratings outlook improved to stable by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on the back of what the rating agency called a strong state budget. On the same day S&P affirmed its ratings and stable outlooks on Queensland and Queensland Treasury Corporation (both AA+/Aa1/AA+) after the state also issued its 2009/10 budget.
On June 12 Tabcorp Investments No.4, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tabcorp (BBB+) priced A$150 million (US$122 million) of floating rate bonds at 425 basis points over the three-month bank bill swap rate - the same level as the company's A$284 million of listed bonds sold on April 30.