News

On February 24 Australia's recently-vibrant retail debt market saw a third deal price with an upsize, as Colonial Group (Colonial) (A+) doubled the volume of its subordinated note offer to A$1 billion (US$1.1 billion). The transaction set a margin of 325 basis points over bank bill swap rate, at the tight end of its indicative range.

ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) (AA-/Aa2/AA-) increased the size of its new subordinated transaction on February 20, allocating A$1.5 billion (US$1.6 billion) to the bookbuild or A$1 billion more than the initial minimum target volume. The issuer also set the transaction margin at 275 basis points over bank bill swap rate (BBSW), the tightest end of its 25 basis point indicative range.

Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) (AAA/Aa1) priced the third Asian issuer Kangaroo transaction of 2012 on February 14, issuing its debut in the Australian market in the form of a A$500 million (US$534.5 million) five year. The transaction follows a brace of Kangaroos from Korean banks, Industrial Bank of Korea (A/A1) and Korea Finance Corporation (KoFC) (A/A+), at the start of the year.

The issuer and lead arranger of Tabcorp Holdings (Tabcorp)'s (BBB) subordinated retail bond offering say the transaction demonstrates the buy- and sell-side appeal of a particular type of listed bond issuance. On February 15, Tabcorp set the margin on the minimum A$200 million (US$213.8 million) subordinated offer at 400 basis points over bank bill swap rate (BBSW).

A day ahead of the February 15 first tender of bonds from New Zealand's Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) the new borrower has set out a bullish line on pricing. While conceding that it will have to pay a new issue premium, the LGFA believes there are strong fundamentals supporting initial pricing at least 40 basis points tighter than even the lowest margin individual local authority paper.

SPI (Australia) Assets (SPIAA) (A-/A3) launched and priced its second transaction in the Australian dollar bond market on February 10. The deal was doubled in size from its launch volume of A$200 million (US$213.9 million) while the margin remained at its indicative level of 185 basis points over swap – the same as that achieved by National Australia Bank (AA-/Aa2/AA) in its recent domestic five-year senior issue.

Having widened to record levels for deals priced at the beginning of 2012, primary market margins for Australian banks have in the past week continued their tightening bias in both on- and offshore markets. The most recent benchmark trades are National Australia Bank (NAB)'s senior unsecured – the first of the year in the domestic market from a big four bank – and Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac)'s euro covered bond debut.

A robust bid for Asian credits in Australian dollars – which has so far this year led to a pair of Korean financial institution (FI) transactions for a total of A$600 million (US$648 million) – could prompt more Asian deal flow. And some intermediaries believe the universe of potential bank issuers, both from Korea and wider Asia, is sufficiently limited that non-financial corporates could see value in meeting the AUD demand.

The Australian major bank senior unsecured market reopened on February 8 as National Australia Bank priced the first such deal of 2012. There was also multi-sector Kangaroo activity and a single syndicated transaction from an Australian semi-government borrower. Meanwhile, results season spurred a host of ratings affirmations.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)'s surprise decision to leave cash rates unchanged at 4.25 per cent at its February 7 meeting has caused some strategists to reduce their expectations for the extent of rate cuts likely in 2012. While acknowledging that the outcome in Australia will be dictated to a large extent by global events, the tone of several research reports released after the RBA announcement leans towards reduced rate cut expectations.

KfW Bankengruppe (KfW) (AAA/Aaa/AAA), so far the only supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) borrower to tap the Kangaroo market in 2012, priced its third transaction of the year on February 7. The German agency increased its February 2018 Kangaroo to A$2.05 billion (US$1.67 billion) outstanding via the addition of A$500 million.

The first Kauri deal of the new year priced on February 8 as World Bank (AAA/Aaa) priced an increase to its existing August 2016 line. The tap was upsized to NZ$325 million (US$271.5 million) from NZ$200 million at launch, and added to a line which World Bank introduced in August last year as its only Kauri transaction of 2011.