News
Adding a sterling tranche to its latest residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issue was crucial for Firstmac, the issuer says, as strong issuance volume is providing strong competition for the real-money appetite on which it depends in the AUD market. The £85 million (US$136.9 million) tranche of Firstmac Mortgage Funding Trust Series 2E-2013 was oversubscribed and upsized, while the issuer noticed reduced appetite for domestic notes compared with its previous market visit in June this year.
Following the offer announcement on November 11, Bank of Queensland (BOQ) completed its buyback of Commonwealth-guaranteed notes on November 15, retiring a further A$287.74 million (US$269.85 million) of notes. The offer covered A$323.4 million of fixed- and A$74.3 million of floating-rate notes, both of which were issued in 2010 and have the maturity date of March 10 2015.
Issuance activity shows no sign yet of slowing down into year end, with the Australian market continuing to see deal activity across a multitude of sectors and asset classes. New Zealand also produced a clutch of new-issuance activity as well as further action in the domestic retail sector.
On November 15, Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) (AA-/Aa2/AA-) priced a new 10-year fixed-rate Australian dollar (AUD) covered bond. The issuer is the second domestic bank to price an AUD covered bond in 2013 following ANZ Banking Group's deal in August, which had with pricing of 100 basis points over swap also for a 10-year duration.
Firstmac priced its second prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issue of 2013 on November 15. This is also the second time this year that Firstmac has opted to use a part-GBP and part-AUD structure in an RMBS deal.
Australia's superannuation industry expects to be a central subject of the forthcoming national financial system enquiry. The apparent disconnect between superannuation capital and key Australian assets, including infrastructure and corporate debt, is also expected to be a focus, though superannuation market participants say they will resist anything which resembles a forced mandate.
Local investors have welcomed the return of BP Capital Markets (BP) to Kangaroo issuance, which they say demonstrates a desire to build a curve in the market. And while the A$300 million (US$281.2 million) eventual size might appear meagre next to its debut issue in this market, intermediaries say a deeper penetration of the domestic investor base – as opposed to size – was always BP's objective.
Volkswagen Financial Services Australia (VW Australia) has priced its first Australian dollar asset-backed securities (ABS) issue. The firm has been a regular domestic bond issuer in recent years but has been absent from the debt capital market so far in 2013.
At least one of the ratings assigned to an A$3.75 billion (US$3.49 billion) senior-secured debt facility provided to Aquasure Finance (Aquasure) is dependent on a substantial portion of the loan being quickly termed out into the bond market. A Fitch Ratings (Fitch) report published on November 13 says Aquasure bond issues are already at the planning stage.