Margins narrow in the debt capital market
Toyota Australia Finance (rated AA-) has issued bonds in the domestic market once each year since 2013. But the issue undertaken last week was the first in 17 months.This degree of infrequency by a high quality issuer was sufficient to ensure that Toyota achieved tighter pricing on its one-year floating rate note issue than margins achieved by the major banks recently.Toyota sold A$150 million of one-year notes at a spread of just 40 basis points over bank bills. The small size of the issue would have also helped secure the tight pricing.This might also explain the tight pricing achieved by Commonwealth Bank (rated AA-) later in the week on a similarly small five-year issue. The bank sold $150 million of FRNs at a spread of just 97 bps over bank bills.This is well inside the 113 bps paid by ANZ for five-year funds just a month earlier.The Sydney branch of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi returned to the market for the second time this year, having raised $500 million for four years in March. At that time the bank paid 150 bps over bank bills to issue the FRNs.This time the bank raised a total of $700 million for three years, at a spread of 102 bps. The issue comprised $550 million of FRNs and $150 million of fixed rate notes.Credit Union Australia (rated BBB+) added $80 million to its December 2017 FRN line. The increase takes the total outstanding to $180 million and was priced at 100 bps over bank bills.MyState Bank (rated BBB) made its market debut in August last year with a $25 million tier two subordinated debt issue. The ten-year (non-call five) FRNs were priced at 500 bps over bank bills.Last week, the bank sold $10 million of tier two ten-year (non-call five) subordinated FRNs, priced at a margin of 425 bps.KommuneKredit saw out the week with a $100 million addition to its November 2026 line. The increase takes the size of the line to $415 million and was priced at 77 bps over commonwealth government securities.In the structured finance sector, Bankwest is seeking to refinance the Class A2 notes issued in the Swan 2011-1 prime RMBS transaction, and Members Equity Bank will be meeting with investors this week ahead of a possible new prime RMBs issue.Offshore, ANZ (rated AA-) raised €1 billion for ten years in the Euromarket. The bonds were priced at 50 bps over swaps, which NAB advises would have swapped back at around 152 bps over bank bills.