Dry July for corporate bond market 13 July 2015 3:24PM Philip Bayley The poor issuance trends of the last couple of weeks of June continued into the first full week of July in the corporate bond market. Domestic activity was limited to Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (rated AA+) adding A$45 million to its July 2025 line. The increase was priced at 79 basis points over commonwealth government securities and takes the total outstanding to $720 million. Offshore, Westpac stood out early in the week with a US$800 million three-year covered bond issue in the US s144A market. The floating rate notes were priced at 30 bps over Libor. However, Commonwealth Bank outdid Westpac later in the week with a US$1 billion five-year covered bond issue priced at 45 bps over mid-swaps. National Australia Bank reported the pricing came in from the high 40s at launch and swapped back at 72 bps. This seems a little expensive for a covered bond issue. ANZ raised £200 million for one year at a spread of 1.5 bps to Libor and later in the week Westpac raised £165 million for one year on the same terms.