LGFV back in the corporate bond market
Only three new issues were seen in the domestic corporate bond market, in a holiday shortened week.Suncorp raised A$500 million for five years though the sale of AAA-rated covered bonds. The issue was priced at 110 basis points over bank bills, which seems quite wide given that the bank raised five-year unsecured funds in April at a margin of 138 bps.ADCM Services' pricing model suggests a spread of 100 bps would be appropriate but covered bond issuance in the domestic market is infrequent, to say the least.Local Government Funding Vehicle (rated Aa2) completed a ten-year bond issue, offering a coupon of 145 bps over swap. We noted last week that the proposed pricing looked very tight relative to secondary market levels on two existing issues - this applies even more so, as both have widened by a basis point or so over the week.SGSP (Australia) Assets Pty Ltd (rated BBB+) sold $350 million of seven-year bonds, priced at 182 bps over swap.The other issuance seen last week was standard sovereign supranational and agency line tapping. Inter-American Development Bank (rated AAA) IADB added $60 million to its June 2026 line at a spread of 53 bps over commonwealth government securities, taking the total outstanding to $160 million.Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (rated AAA) added $50 million, at a spread of 81.25 bps over CGS, to increase its September 2026 line to $210 million.International Finance Corporation (rated AAA) priced a $60 million tap at 57.75 bps over CGS, taking its July 2026 line size to $530 million.Municipality Finance Plc (AA+) now has $200 million outstanding after pricing a $50 million tap to its February 2026 line at 72.25 bps over CGS.KommuneKredit (rated AAA) added $80 million to the $50 million November 2026 line it opened last month. The increase was priced 4.25 bps wider, at 79.75 bps over CGS.And African Development Bank (rated AAA) added $25 million to its June 2026 line. The increase was priced at 52.25 bps over CGS and takes the line to $155 million.In New Zealand, World Bank's NZ$875 million addition to its January 2021 line could have been a new issue in its own right. It is the second largest issue seen in the market, ranking just behind a NZ$900 million tier one capital issue from Rabobank NV undertaken in September 2007.ICBC New Zealand (rated A) added NZ$25 million to its December 2017 line, to take the size of the line to NZ$50 million. The tap, priced at 105 bps over swap, priced wider than the original NZ$25 million issue, which priced at 85 bps over in December 2014.And the Local Government Funding Agency (rated AA+) added NZ$40 million to each of its March 2019 and April 2023 lines and opened a new April 2025 line at NZ$100 million. The two taps will yield an average of 2.6 per cent and three per cent respectively, and the average yield on the new bonds is 3.2 per cent.Offshore, QBE Insurance Group raised US$524 million of tier two capital. The June 2046