News
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) priced a tap its February 2020 Kangaroo bond on May 12. According to KangaNews data, the deal is the third increase of the line which was introduced at volume of A$350 million (US$277.6 million) in July last year.
Two corporate transactions were launched into the Australian market on May 11, with GPT Wholesale Office Fund (GWOF) (A- by S&P) and Asciano Finance (Asciano) (BBB/Baa2) mandating seven- and 10-year deals respectively. Both transactions will be debut deals in the local market.
Half-yearly results announcements from three of Australia's big-four banks and Treasury Corporation of Victoria's revised funding plans following the state budget headlined this week's Australian capital-markets news. Deal flow was slow, although Wesfarmers returned to the domestic market.
Wesfarmers believes the Australian dollar corporate bond market is exhibiting growing depth and diversity compared with its previous experiences, despite relatively low volume in 2015 to date. Keen domestic pricing is also noted – as long as issuers avoid chasing high volumes and "very" long tenors.
On May 7, Wesfarmers (A-/A3) priced a new 5.5-year fixed-rate senior-unsecured domestic deal with pricing inside indicative price guidance of 95 basis points over semi-quarterly swap.
Rentenbank (AAA/Aaa/AAA) priced the third increase of its January 2020 Kangaroo bond on May 7. According to KangaNews data, the line was first introduced at volume of A$650 million (US$515.6 million) on January 13 this year, and pricing of 52.00 basis points over Australian government bond (ACGB).
Half-yearly results announcements from three of Australia's big-four banks shone light on approaches to capital management which have started to diverge, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, one of the majors quantifies a negative impact on treasury income which it suggests has primarily been driven by Australia's newly restrictive liquid asset regulations.
On May 7, CML Group (CML) (NR) launched a new six-year senior-secured issue in the Australian market. According to KangaNews data, the transaction is the fourth unrated deal launched in Australia in 2015 following the resumption of deal flow for the year on March 20.
Treasury Corporation of Victoria (TCV)'s funding plan for the year ahead contains a small long-term funding component, even though proceeds from the lease of Port of Melbourne allow for a substantial net debt repayment in 2015/16. TCV built up its short-term debt on issue in anticipation of the asset lease, and the proceeds will be used to retire much of this paper.