ANZ sets New Year benchmark
ANZ provided the centrepiece of deal in the debt capital market last week, the only one featuring an Australian name.The bank launched a US$3 billion debt issue in the US bond market, comprising a US$1 billion floating rate note with a three-year term and two US$1 billion fixed rate bonds with three- and five-year terms.The bank priced the bonds in line with guidance at three-month Libor plus 74 basis points for the FRN; 102 basis points over US Treasuries for the three-year bond and 145 basis points over US Treasuries for the 10-year bond.The sale of the new debt comes hot on the heels of the bank's post-Christmas offer to buy back US dollar government-guaranteed debt. Investors may offer to sell bonds back to the bank up until Thursday.Luke Davidson, head of group funding at ANZ, said the buyback and the new funding sends "a signal to the market about our funding and liquidity strength."On the other side of the coin, with the guarantee fee being a flat 70 basis points, as the deal shortens up the economics [of refinancing] are in our favour."We're pricing the buyback at a level we think is attractive enough for investors to want to participate, so we shared some of that."On Friday, Thomson Reuters reported that Macquarie Group launched a US$750 million 10-year bond in the US market, under Rule 144a.The Macquarie bond has an indicative price of 300 basis points over US Treasuries.