News

FlexiGroup, which last issued in the asset-backed securities (ABS) market in June 2011, priced a new securitisation transaction with volume of A$255 million (US$267.1 million) on August 3. The transaction is a securitisation of nearly 120,000 consumer loan receivables, according to Fitch Ratings (Fitch), with home-related products like solar energy forming the largest contributing asset type at 50.6 per cent of the pool.

The second Australian residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) deal in three days priced on August 9, as FirstMac introduced its first transaction since December last year. The deal, FirstMac Mortgage Funding Trust Series 2012-1, has volume of A$300 million (US$316.6 million) spread across three rated and two unrated tranches.

Issuers and intermediaries involved in recent Kangaroo deals from Canadian borrowers say attractive Australian dollar pricing and investor demand for the perceived safe-haven status offered by Canadian credits could help clear the way for further flow. Late July saw a flurry of Kangaroo issuance that included a brace of Canadian-origin deals, including a debut, for a total of A$950 million (US$996.9 million).

Issuer and leads on the first, and to date only, German-origin Kangaroo deal to price following the decision of Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) to revise the outlook on its Aaa rating on the German sovereign to negative say demand for the transaction was unaffected. In fact, KfW Bankengruppe (KfW) says its new 2017 issue attracted strong Australian demand despite the potential threat to its local repo-eligibility.

Continuing demand for retail fixed income transactions in Australia allowed Caltex Australia (Caltex) to bring forward the bookbuild date for its subordinated notes offer to August 3 – from August 8 – and to nearly double the size of the offer at the tighter end of its indicative pricing range. Caltex allocated A$525 million (US$555.1 million) through its bookbuild, at a margin of 450 basis points over bank bills.

Pricing was completed on a new residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transaction from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank), in the bank's first securitisation issue since it placed A$3 billion (US$3.2 billion) in April last year. The new transaction, called Medallion Trust Series 2012-1, was upsized by A$250 million to a total A$1 billion.

KfW Bankengruppe (KfW) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) has priced a new Kangaroo transaction on August 1. The new five-year notes add to KfW's A$21.85 billion (US$23 billion) outstanding over 12 lines. Leads on the deal are Deutsche Bank, TD Securities and UBS Investment Bank.

In its first syndicated deal of 2012, Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) (Aaa/AA+) has priced a benchmark transaction on August 1 with a volume of A$1.65 billion (US$1.73 billion). The deal, to mature on June 21 2019, is led by Deutsche Bank, National Australia Bank and UBS Investment Bank.

World Bank (AAA/Aaa) has priced its second transaction in the New Zealand market in 2012 with a five-year Kauri bond on July 31. Its last issue in February brought World Bank's outstanding volume to NZ$17.7 billion over three lines.

KangaNews is pleased to announce the launch of intermediary league tables for the Australian covered bond market – including historical Kangaroo covered bond issuance – and for Australian and New Zealand covered bond issuance into global benchmark markets. Since the market opened in late 2011 Australian banks have issued the equivalent of over US$35 billion of covered bonds globally, while New Zealand banks have placed over US$8 billion since mid-2010.

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) (AAA/Aaa) has priced its third transaction of 2012 on July 30 with a new five-year Kangaroo. The deal comes during what already a bumper month for Kangaroos with 16 transactions priced in July to date.

A flurry of Kangaroo issuance swept in through a window of opportunity during the week ending July 27 as seven deals priced. Issuance included no fewer than four deals by African Development Bank and the debut of Canada's Province of Manitoba. In addition, two corporate deals and an agency transaction priced in Australia.