BP greases corporate bond market
BP aims to sell more Australian dollar bonds to a largely domestic investor base, with the firm's sale of A$500 million in five-year bonds this week being an exceptionally rare example of a "kangaroo" bond coming from a corporate issuer.Through BP Capital Markets (rated A by S&P), the energy firm sold the bonds at a spread of 115 basis points over swap. ANZ and UBS were lead managers.KangaNews reported that BP has said it hopes to be a regular kangaroo borrower and has a long-term target of issuing around $1 billion.BP achieved pricing in line with the spread it would expect to pay on term debt in offshore markets. It first presented to Australian investors a year ago.Vodafone was the first and, until this week, the last kangaroo issuer, in 2006.