SingTel sells long-term bonds, inside bank pricing

The 10-year debt market is not just the preserve of banks. Optus Finance Pty Ltd also raised ten-year funds during the week, issuing US$500 million of Euro medium-term notes at a margin of just 150 basis over US Treasuries.

This is 32 bps tighter than Commonwealth Bank was able to achieve on its 10-year deal, even though the bank is rated two notches higher by both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service than the telco.

Insto reported that the Optus bond was five times oversubscribed, so rarity value would appear to account for the tight pricing.
 
Suncorp Metway was also active in the Euromarket, issuing US$750 million of three-year, government-guaranteed, floating rate notes at Libor plus 23 bps. Suncorp has raised the equivalent of A$10.7 billion this year, through government guaranteed international bond issues. This is way in excess of its international bond issuance in any other year.

In the domestic market, Suncorp has issued A$3.75 billion of government-guaranteed bonds. Again, this is more than its issuance in any other year. And while it could be argued that Suncorp used to make good use of securitisation, which it has been unable to do to the same extent for the last year or so, these issuance volumes are also well ahead of previous securitisation issuance.