Nestlé Finance France has entered a currency and interest rate swap on an AUD200 million (USD155 million) bond issue. Claudio Menghi, an official on Nestlé's capital markets desk in Vevey, Switzerland, who is responsible for the bond issue, said the corporate has synthetically converted the entire issue to euros and from a fixed to floating rate liability. He added, "There was retail demand for Australian paper and we were happy to issue it."
Menghi added that the corporate maintains a mixture of fixed and floating rate liabilities and does not always convert floating rate issues. It is Nestlé's policy, however, to hedge its currency exposure into euros.
Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets was the bookrunner on the bond. Menghi said that RBC CM was not the counterparty in the swap, but declined to reveal the swap counterparty or the rates it pays and receives.
