News
Municipality Finance (MuniFin) (AA+/Aaa) priced an increase to its 2024 Kangaroo on March 31, in what is the issuer's first Australian dollar transaction of the year. According to KangaNews data, MuniFin priced A$310 million (US$238.9 million) in three Kangaroo deals in 2014 having been absent from the market for nearly six years.
The first stage of Australia's tax white paper process suggests the two tax breaks believed to be most responsible for driving local investors away from income assets are both up for discussion. In context, though, the tax discussion paper released by government on March 30 is a wide-ranging document which requests feedback rather than making early recommendations.
The Australian dollar markets saw renewed activity during the last full week of March. The Australian Office of Financial Manangement highlighted a new syndication technique in its 2035 issue while KfW Bankengruppe priced its debut Kangaroo green bond.
Liberty Financial (Liberty) (BBB- by S&P) launched and priced its inaugural senior-unsecured three-year fixed-rate transaction in the domestic market on March 27. The debut follows a series of fixed-income investor meetings which commenced on February 27.
On March 27, Bank of China Sydney Branch (BoC Sydney) (A/A1/A) priced its fourth Australian dollar domestic benchmark transaction, and its first since 2013.
For its Kangaroo green-bond debut, KfW Bankengruppe deployed a different execution approach to that used by Australia's only other green-bond issuer from the supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) sector. This strategy helped KfW to price A$600 million (US$469.8 million) in its five-year green bond on March 26 – double the volume of any previous Australian dollar deal in this format.
On March 26, KfW Bankengruppe (KfW) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) priced its debut 5.25-year Kangaroo green-bond transaction. The deal is the second-ever supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) Kangaroo green bond and the third denominated in Australian dollars.
Deal sources insist the latest issuer to place a corporate hybrid transaction in the Australian market attracted a groundswell of support to the deal from both retail and wholesale investors. The manner of deal execution lends some support to this claim – including the volume of bids and the speed at which they emerged.
Hallett Hill No.2 Wind Farm (Hallett Hill) (BBB), owned by Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG)'s Energy Infrastructure Trust (EIT), priced the first-ever green bond in the US private placement (USPP) market in the third week of March. Deal sources highlight increasing investor interest in green assets.
Unrated deal flow continues for 2015 with the launch of a new seven-year deal by Moneytech Finance (Moneytech) on March 26. The A$25 million (US$19.5 million) subordinated floating-rate notes issue is targeted at wholesale investors.
On March 24, Lloyds Bank (A/A1/A) priced a new Australian dollar senior-unsecured transaction in what is the issuer's debut deal in the Kangaroo market.
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) added a new technique to its deal-syndication strategy ahead of the debut of its new 2035 Australian government benchmark on March 24, and says the early signs are that the change had a positive impact. But it also emphasises that it is not committing to repeating the approach on all its future bookbuilt transactions.