Suncorp taps sterling as Macquarie readies its first domestic GG deal
On February 18 Suncorp-Metway (A/Aa3) (Suncorp) tapped the £550 million (US$784.5 million) 4 per cent January 2014 government-guaranteed bond it first issued on January 11, bringing the total on issue to £750 million. The increase was led by the same group that brought the inaugural bond – Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and RBC Capital Markets (RBCCM).BNZ opens NZ wholesale guaranteed market
Bank of New Zealand (AA/Aa2) (BNZ) priced the first deal from a New Zealand bank to be covered by the domestic sovereign guarantee on wholesale funding on February 18, bringing NZ$180 million (US$91.9 million) of five-year paper at 80 basis points over five-year mid-swap.CommBank and ANZ lead another US$4 billion-plus funding week
Appetite for government guaranteed bonds from Australian bank issuers showed no sign of letting up in the past week with domestic and Japanese investor providing the bulk of the US$4.02 billion equivalent raised in total, headlined by benchmark Australian dollar and yen deals from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (AA/Aa1) (CommBank) and ANZ Banking Group (AA/Aa1) (ANZ) respectively.
Investec is first BBB five-year issuer in Aussie guaranteed market
Investec Bank (Australia) (Baa1/BBB) (Investec) priced A$200 million (US$127.9 million) of 2014 bonds covered by the Australian government guarantee on February 18, becoming in the process the first triple-B rated issuer to bring a five-year transaction with sovereign backing in the local market.CommBank gets unguaranteed tranche away but size limited
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (AA/Aa1) (CommBank) successfully priced its combined guaranteed and unguaranteed twin maturity Australian domestic deal on February 12, but the respective size of the two segments demonstrated the extent to which the investor base still favours sovereign-backed paper.