Alliance & Leicester, the U.K. financial services group, entered a currency swap last week in which it paid Canadian dollars and received sterling. The group entered the swap on the back of a CAD150 million (USD114 million) bond issue. The issue, due August 2006, pays a floating coupon of three-month bankers' acceptance plus 13 basis points. Three-month bankers' acceptance was at 2.09% last Tuesday.
Annika Wahlberg, head of capital markets in Leicester, said TD Securities, the bookrunner of the bond, helped arrange the swap, but she declined to comment on the terms of the transaction or to name the counterparties. Alliance & Leicester issued the bond in Canadian dollars to diversify its liabilities, said Wahlberg. The group enters swaps to convert all fixed-rate liabilities to floating and will enter swaps off the back of future fixed-rate issuance.
