News
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) broke its own syndicated volume record, for the third time in 2020, with its new November 2031 Treasury bond deal. The transaction took advantage of what the issuer says is the deepest demand point on the sovereign curve.
Overwhelming investor demand for corporate paper in a busy week of issuance enabled Coles Group to execute a short transaction process off the back of its annual results and to achieve significant price tightening, deal sources say.
Four Australian issuers executed tier-two deals in the week of 17 August, reviving a subordinated debt market that had lain dormant since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. Deal sources say demand for Australian tier-two paper is strong at home and abroad.
ANZ Banking Group’s capital-markets return, on 19 August, marked the first major-bank domestic tier-two deal since late 2019 and the sector’s first Australian dollar green, social and sustainability (GSS) bond since 2017. It is ANZ’s third transaction under its SDG framework, which aligns use of proceeds with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, having previously only issued in the euro market.
Wellington International Airport has issued New Zealand’s first public domestic corporate bond since the COVID-19 crisis began, just days before new local cases were detected on 11 August. Lack of supply helped the airport complete the early refinancing of a May 2021 maturity.
After issuing PRS 26 in June, Pepper Group returned with its PRS 27 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) deal on 12 August with, the issuer says, renewed support from offshore investors.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has expanded its large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) programme to NZ$100 billion (US$65.4 billion) from NZ$60 billion and extended its duration to June 2022 from May 2021. In the same 12 August announcement, however, the reserve bank also expressed its confidence that New Zealand had contained the spread of COVID-19 despite the emergence of an outbreak on the previous day.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s first purchase of Australian Commonwealth Government Bonds (ACGBs) since May has opened a debate on the ongoing purpose of asset purchases. Three-year sovereign-bond yield is close to the RBA’s 0.25 per cent target but analysts still expect further near-term intervention.
BNP Paribas’s debut as a Kangaroo green-bond issuer also introduced a globally innovative structure to the local environmental, social and governance (ESG) market. The transaction, which priced on 3 August, is a standard use-of-proceeds green bond that also rewards investors for the outperformance of a new forward-looking climate-transition equity index.
Following the pricing of its longest-dated syndicated deal, on 30 July, New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) says the deal harnessed momentum generated in the long end by recent syndications from the Australian and New Zealand sovereign borrowers.
Ausgrid Finance returned to the Australian dollar market for only its second domestic transaction, on 29 July. The issuer says it saw a window of opportunity to refinance debt ahead of schedule and moved quickly to take advantage of conducive issuance conditions.
Pricing in the Australian dollar supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) market remains dislocated, intermediaries say, based on lack of alignment between domestic investor and offshore borrower pricing expectations. A number of factors are at play, not least among them the record support SSA borrowers are receiving in global markets.