Foreign markets functioning for bank names
Offshore, National Australia Bank (rated AA-) sold US$2.1 billion of bonds in the US s144A market last week. The three tranche issue comprised US$500 million of fixed rate and US$850 million of floating rate three year notes, priced at 28 basis points over swap/Libor, and US$750 million of five year, fixed rate notes, priced at 60 bps over US Treasury bonds.The three-year funds would have swapped back into Australian dollars at around 55 bps over bank bills, and the five year funds at around 80 bps over.Over in the Euromarket, Westpac (AA-) raised A$100 million for ten years and will pay just 4.0 per cent One corporate also sold similar bonds on similar terms in the market last week.New Zealand's ASB Bank (AA-) sold €300 million of three year floating rate notes, at a spread of 40 bps over Euribor. The spread would convert to about 70 bps over bank bills, in New Zealand dollars.In the domestic bond market, the last full week of June was quiet with six issuers, issuing just A$884 million of bonds. The issuance total for June stands at A$5.6 billion, the lowest monthly total for the year to date, and well below the A$13.2 billion of bonds issued in May, the best month of the year so far.Commonwealth Bank quietly placed A$109 million of ten year covered bonds and Bank Nederlandse Gemeeten (rated AA+) added a further A$75 million to its May 2024 line, to take the total outstanding to A$875 million.Westpac's Capital Notes 2 commenced trading on Tuesday. The final size of the issue came in at A$1.31 billion, after being launched at A$750 million and upsizing to A$1.0 billion after the bookbuild.