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Bank of China Sydney Branch (BoC Sydney) (A/A1/A) priced a new, three-year domestic benchmark bond on 21 February. The transaction was upsized from indicative volume of A$300 million (US$230.6 million) minimum and the eventual pricing tightened from 105 basis points area over three-month bank bill swap rate (BBSW).
Credit Union Australia (CUA) (BBB+/A3) revealed on 20 February that it is planning to meet fixed-income investors in Sydney and Melbourne during the week of 6 March, ahead of a potential Australian dollar-denominated capital-markets transaction.
In the wake of the first Korean-origin Kangaroo transaction of 2017, The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim’s) Seoul-based treasurer, Hee Sung Yoon, tells KangaNews greater domestic takeup of the deal is down to the issuer’s long-term engagement with the market. Kexim printed the A$500 million (US$383.7 million) deal on 7 February, in the first-ever three-tranche deal from a Korean credit in Australia.
On 20 February ASB Bank (AA-/As3/AA-) launched two new, self-led senior-unsecured domestic transactions, with three- and five-year maturities. The forthcoming deals, which are each for up to NZ$100 million (US$71.9 million) with the right to accept unlimited oversubscriptions, will close on 22 February.
Australian securitisation and New Zealand domestic issuance kicked into action during the second full week of February. In particular, Westpac Banking Corporation printed an upsized auto asset-backed securities transaction for A$2.15 billion (US$1.66 billion).