In the wake of a June 30, A$825 million (US$668 million) increase to its 2023 line, New South Wales Treasury Corporation (TCorp) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) has added its voice to the weight of opinion asking for more development of the long end of the Australian debt market curve.
Domestic vanilla issuance by Australian borrowers reached record volumes in the first half of 2009. By June 30 Australian non-government issuers had raised a total of just over A$40 billion (US$32.44 billion) in the year to date – almost reaching 2008's total figure of A$42.2 billion.
On June 26 Rabobank Nederland Australia Branch (Rabobank) (AAA/Aaa) priced a two-tranche July 2014 bond totalling A$650 million (US$533 million). The A$300 million floating rate notes (FRNs) and A$350 million fixed rate bonds priced at 130 basis points over the bank bill swap rate (BBSW) and swap. According to Mark Goddard, head of syndicate at joint lead manager Westpac Institutional Bank in Sydney, there were 50 investors in the book.
On June 24 Suncorp-Metway (Suncorp) (A/A1/A+) priced its debut Samurai bond deal - a single tranche two-year floating rate note totalling ¥13 billion (US$135.5 million) - at 30 basis points over three-month yen-Libor. The government-guaranteed transaction, which matures on June 30 2011, was led by joint bookrunners Nomura Securities (Nomura) and Nikko Citigroup.
The Department of Treasury appears to be beefing up its credit skills in such a way that some market participants are wondering if more credit-related policy and/or investment is on the way.
On June 23 Treasury Corporation of Victoria (TCV) (AAA/Aaa) announced it does not need to use the commonwealth government guarantee to help assist in its funding task, arguing it is not in the semi-government authority's commercial interest to take up the offer at this point.
The treasurer of New South Wales (NSW) confirmed on June 23 that NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) intends to apply the newly-enacted commonwealth government guarantee on existing state bonds to all its outstanding lines with maturities from three to 15 years.
National Australia Bank (NAB) (AAA/Aa1/AA) reopened its government-guaranteed March 26 2012 line on June 19, issuing a self-led A$950 million (US$744.52 million) fixed and floating rate top-up just a day after it also added A$1.3 billion to its unguaranteed line which matures on May 4 2012.
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.