Subdued trading in Westpac's capital notes
Westpac's capital notes commenced deferred settlement trading on the ASX last Tuesday. The final issue size was A$1.384 billion, up from the bookbuild commitment of A$1.25 billion that was announced in early February.However, at nearly $1.4 billion, it seems that Westpac may have tapped all available demand for the issue. The issue ended the day at $99.61 and has not returned to face value since.No doubt the price of the capital notes will move to over A$100 as the dividend accrues, but one wonders if some of the heat is coming out of the hybrid market now that the equity market is performing strongly and risk aversion seems to be waning.National Australia Bank launched its hybrid note issue just two weeks after Westpac, and, upon completion of the bookbuild, increased the issue size to A$1.4 billion, from A$750 million. It will be interesting to see how this issue performs when deferred settlement trading starts on Thursday.