News
Sovereign inflation-linked issuance highlighted the week, as both the Australian Office of Financial Management and New Zealand Debt Management Office printed syndicated linker deals. New-issuance markets were relatively quiet elsewhere save for Australian bank benchmark deals and the now-ubiquitous stream of small, high-grade Kangaroo deals.
The New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO) (AA+/Aaa/AA+) printed to top of its target volume of NZ$1-1.5 billion (US$706.1 million – NZ$1.1 billion) in the 3 March syndication of its new 2040 inflation-linked bond. The issuer says books exceeded NZ$2.4 billion.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Sydney Branch (BTMU Sydney) priced a new four-year, domestic deal on March 1 with an upsize from A$300 million (US$230 million) to A$800 million and a 5 basis point margin tightening from the launch level of 105 basis points over bank bills.
Surging domestic demand enabled the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) to ride out apparent reduced nonresident holdings of Australian Commonwealth government bonds (ACGBs) in its return to syndicated issuance. The debt-management agency printed A$11 billion (US$8.4 billion) in a new November 2028 nominal bond on 22 February, having printed A$9.3 billion of new 2021s barely a month earlier.
