Club loans remain small and rare

Banking Day staff
The updated figures from Thomson Reuters on syndicated loans for the first quarter, and into the current period, for the Australian market show that the leading mandated arranger is ANZ (arranger of 15 deals deal worth A$1.64 billion) followed by the other Big Four banks. The next five spots are taken by several large Asian banks, with Natixis at number 10, involved in a relatively small A$201 million deal.

The top five domestic syndicated loans for the year to date were, in order:

  • SDP Finco, with funds used for debt repayment: A$1.66 billion (signing date 4 March 2015)
  • Primary Health Care, for debt repayment:  $125 billion (16 March)
  • Infrashore Finance, for use in making an acquisition: 1.043 billion (6 February)
  • ConnectEast Finance, for debt repayment: $1.034 billion (25 February)
  • John Holland, "corporate purposes": $1.0 billion (1 April)

In New Zealand, the numbers are much smaller, as are the size of the loans raised so far.

As with the Australian market, the leader of the mandated arrangers league table is is ANZ, with deals worth US$752, followed by Westpac (deals worth US$551), BNZ (US$406) and ASB (US$262).

The top three syndicated loan deals to date are all for debt repayments:

  • Foodstuffs North Island: NZ1.0 billion (signing date 20 March 2015)
  • Skycity Entertainment Group: NZ$577 million (23 March)
  • Argosy Property Nominees: NZ$550 million (10 February)