Kiwi bond market ticking over

The corporate bond market in New Zealand just keeps on going, no matter what (or thanks to a favourable euro basis swap and a flight to quality). There were a further three issues last week, all from AAA rated supranationals and agencies.

The Norwegian local government lender, Kommunalbanken, started proceedings by adding NZ$75 million to its October 2010 line. The top-up takes outstandings to NZ$575 million and was priced at 10 bps under swap or 101 bps over the New Zealand government bond rate.

Next came the German agricultural lender, Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, issuing NZ$160 million of three-year bonds at 117 bps over the New Zealand government bond rate and flat to swap. And on Friday, Council of Europe Development Bank added NZ$50 million to its 2018 line to take outstandings to NZ$150 million. The bonds were priced at 25 bps under swap.

Back in the Australian bond market, the surprise A$1.5 billion domestic bond issue by Westpac, mentioned last week, was apparently taken up mostly by the Future Fund.