News
Three offshore banking names top KangaNews's league tables for Australian deals excluding self-led transactions, with HSBC Australia's position on the top line of the recent record-sized deal from Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) catapulting it to the top of the heap with A$2.24 billion (US$1.48 billion) of deal volume.
Bank of New Zealand (AA/Aa2) (BNZ) launched New Zealand’s first bank deal not backed by the local wholesale guarantee since November last year on March 18, offering NZ$50 million (US$26.47 million) of five-year paper covered by the retail guarantee at a slight premium to its recent similar tenor deals with full sovereign backing.
Australia Post (AAA) became the latest issuer to test the market for unguaranteed securities in Australia, launching a five-year bond on March 18 which sources close to the deal say was attracting significant investor interest prior to launch from a wide number and range of accounts.
The residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction brought to market by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN) priced on March 13 at slightly tighter levels than a similar transaction from Credit Union Australia (CUA) that priced four days earlier. Both deals saw cornerstone investment from the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM).
Bank of New Zealand (AA/Aa2) (BNZ) increased its five-year maturity government-guaranteed transaction – still the only outstanding line in the New Zealand market to be covered by the government’s wholesale guarantee – on March 5, topping the bond up by NZ$105 million (US$53.76 million) to a total of NZ$285 million.
Westpac Banking Corporation (AA/Aa1) (Westpac), for some time the only Australian big four bank not to have issued into its home market under the terms of the government guarantee, priced its second domestic benchmark in under a fortnight on March 11 in the form of a record A$3.06 billion (US$1.96 billion) of fixed and floating rate 2012 paper.
AMP (A/A2) has set the margin on its AMP Notes (A-/A3) lower tier two (LTII) deal at the wider end of its indicative range and expects to allocate the initial guidance volume of A$300 million (US$193.8 million) in the transaction. Lead managers say the transaction will achieve its intended goal and could pave the way for further retail distribution of debt securities in Australia.
Pricing on Credit Union Australia (CUA)'s Harvey Trust Series 2009-1 (Harvey 2009-1) residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction has been set at the levels anticipated by investors – 100 basis points and 140 basis points above BBSW for the two top-rated tranches respectively.
Third party investors may play a smaller role in the latest residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction to receive a cornerstone bid from the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), although the overall size of the deal is greater than the most recent previous transaction and the underlying mortgage pool is a particularly stable one.
On March 5, Contact Energy (BBB) (Contact) announced an upsized allocation of NZ$550 million (US$275.8 million) for the 2014 maturity deal it opened earlier in the week, with New Zealand intermediaries saying retail demand for corporate bonds remains vibrant – provided they come accompanied by an attractive coupon.
The three major Australian banks that had their outlooks revised to negative by Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) at the start of the week have seen little immediate impact on either the secondary market for their bonds – including those not covered by the government guarantee – or, funding managers insist, on investor sentiment.
The New Zealand Exchange (NZX)’s debt indices will now be known as the ANZ Debt Indices, following a March 4 announcement that ANZ has formed a partnership with the exchange to develop the products. The partnership covers all NZX’s index products including sovereign, corporate, Kauri and swap benchmarks.