News
Pricing on Credit Union Australia (CUA)'s Harvey Trust Series 2009-1 (Harvey 2009-1) residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction has been set at the levels anticipated by investors – 100 basis points and 140 basis points above BBSW for the two top-rated tranches respectively.
Third party investors may play a smaller role in the latest residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction to receive a cornerstone bid from the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), although the overall size of the deal is greater than the most recent previous transaction and the underlying mortgage pool is a particularly stable one.
On March 5, Contact Energy (BBB) (Contact) announced an upsized allocation of NZ$550 million (US$275.8 million) for the 2014 maturity deal it opened earlier in the week, with New Zealand intermediaries saying retail demand for corporate bonds remains vibrant – provided they come accompanied by an attractive coupon.
The three major Australian banks that had their outlooks revised to negative by Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) at the start of the week have seen little immediate impact on either the secondary market for their bonds – including those not covered by the government guarantee – or, funding managers insist, on investor sentiment.
The New Zealand Exchange (NZX)’s debt indices will now be known as the ANZ Debt Indices, following a March 4 announcement that ANZ has formed a partnership with the exchange to develop the products. The partnership covers all NZX’s index products including sovereign, corporate, Kauri and swap benchmarks.
The issuer of the first corporate bond offering in Australia for over a year – a deal which is also the first to take advantage of trans-Tasman joint offering rules – says the transaction’s target margin offers an attractive alternative to equity funding. AMP (A/A2) launched its lower tier two (LTII) deal to Australian and New Zealand investors on March 3.
The SPS II tier 1 (T1) offering opened by Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) on February 20 has had its margin set towards the tighter end of its indicative range and has also been upsized to A$700 million (US452 million), although even the increased volume will fall short of the combined outstanding in the three St.George Bank (St.George) hybrids SPS II is designed to refinance.
Credit Union Australia (CUA) is the latest mortgage lender to bring a residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction in Australia on the back of a cornerstone investment from the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), although investors say over 20 per cent of the total transaction may end up being bought by external accounts.
KangaNews has learned that almost all the five-year funding done by the Australian majors in the US market since the dawn of the guaranteed era was bought by a single investor, with three of the big four tapping the market for 2014 maturity deals in January using the same lead manager.
Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) placed the state of Queensland (AA+/Aaa/AAA) and its funding agency, Queensland Treasury Corporation, on review for possible downgrade on February 27, following the lead of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) which downgraded both state and treasury a week earlier.
Westpac Banking Corporation (AA/Aa1) (Westpac) became the last of the Australian big four banks to bring a domestic benchmark transaction under the terms of the local sovereign guarantee on February 26 with the pricing of a A$1.925 billion (US$1.24 billion) five-year fixed and floating rate deal.
The chief executive of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Robert Elstone, has called for longer-dated commonwealth government security (CGS) issuance as part of a predicted “more buoyant fixed income market in Australia over coming years”. Elstone believes investment in new energy sources and technologies will necessarily be driven by the fixed income market.