Issuance in the domestic corporate bond market was again very light last week. While it appears that October could be another light month like September, there are some A$6.6 billion of bonds maturing next month, which may drive some activity over the coming weeks.

Domestic banks account for $4.9 billion of the maturing bonds, and Westpac (rated AA-) and National Australia Bank (rated AA-) account for most of those. But Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (rated A-) and Heritage Bank (rated BBB+) also have bonds maturing.

Among the non-financial issuers, Sydney Airport (rated BBB) and Transurban (rated A-) will see bonds mature, along with utility companies Powercor (rated A-) and CLP Australia Finance (rated A-). Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (rated A) also has a bond maturing.

Aside from possible issuance from those with upcoming maturities, Australian National University (rated AA+) flagged its intention to meet with investors this week, as has Bank of Queensland (rated A-).

As for the issuance activity that took place last week, Suncorp (rated A+) was the largest issuer in the domestic market, selling $550 million of five-year floating rate notes and $200 million of five year fixed-rate notes at a spread of 125 basis points over the bank bill swap rate.

The only other issuance came from the sovereigns, supranationals and agencies sector, with a number of lines being tapped. Rentenbank (rated AAA) added $100 million to its May 2026 line to take the total outstanding to $250 million, priced at 54.5 bps over commonwealth government securities.KFW (rated AAA) added $300 million to its April 2020 line to take outstandings to $2 billion, with pricing at 60.5 bps over CGS.

The Province of Manitoba (rated AA) priced $75 million to its March 2025 line at CGS plus 81.6 bps. The increase takes the size of the line to $375 million.International Finance Corporation (rated AAA) priced $50 million increase to its April 2025 line at CGS plus 43.5 bps. The increases take the size of the line to $975 million. 

In New Zealand, Dunedin City Treasury (rated AA) sold NZ$50 million of seven-year notes at a spread of 56 bps over bank bills.