News
Westpac New Zealand (Westpac NZ) closed its second domestic senior unsecured public transaction of 2012, announcing on July 7 that it placed a total of NZ$620 million (US$498.7 million) across a new five-year floating rate note (FRN) and new seven-year FRNs. The latter tranche is the issuer's second-ever domestic seven-year public bond issue.
KfW Bankengruppe has priced a tap to its January 2016 Kangaroo, adding to the A$2.3 billion (US$2.36 billion) outstanding in the line. Its previous deal priced on June 15 2012 for A$350 million at 144.75 basis points over ACGB, maturing on February 9 2022.
Market participants confirm that the return of Kangaroo issuance in June – which included the year's largest deal so far, a A$1.1 billion (US$1.1 billion), two-tranche issue from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – was driven by demand from outside Australia. However, active issuers say they continue to be content with the state of the market while there are hopes that domestic demand will return in time.
Steady rather than spectacular primary market issuance in the second quarter was enough to keep first half volume in the Australian domestic wholesale market tracking ahead of record figures when government-guaranteed issuance is excluded. Other Australasian markets did not fare as well through the first half of 2012, with Kangaroo and securitisation issuance in particular lagging previous years' volume.
A new residential mortgage-backed securities issue by Liberty Financial (Liberty) has priced at the end of June. The nonconforming deal, Liberty Series 2012-1 Trust, has volume of A$300 million across its eight rated and one unrated tranches, making it Liberty's largest RMBS transaction to be brought to market since April 2009 according to KangaNews data.
A flurry of Kangaroo deals hit the domestic market in the week ending June 29 2012 drawing less frequently-seen names and big transactions to Australia. An Australian residential mortgage-backed security priced on Friday, and across the Tasman, one Kauri made its way to the market.
Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) (AAA/Aaa) has priced a tap to its March 2017 Kauri, three months after the line was introduced. The transaction adds to the outstanding NZ$200 million (US$157.9 million) notes priced at 43 basis points over swap.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) has priced a new five-year Kangaroo, its second deal of the year. ADB's most recent deal in March was a 10-year A$500 million transaction priced at 34 basis points over benchmark and 99.5 basis points over ACGB. It has A$6.375 billion (US$6.388 billion) outstanding over seven lines.
National Australia Bank (NAB) (AA-/Aa2) announced it is exploring an increase to its fixed and floating rate lines maturing in February 2017. The two lines launched in 2012 make up A$1.5 billion outstanding. NAB's previous deal priced in A$1 billion in March at 110bp/swap to mature December 19 2014.