Australia

Two recent policy changes from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) spurred a pair of foreign banks to scoop A$3.2bn ($2.2bn) from the bond market this week. An expansion of repo-eligibility and a term funding facility for domestic banks have freed up the funds to drive the bumper deals, according to a banker at one of Australia's big four banks.

The International Finance Corp returned to the Australian dollar bond market to fund its response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, while at the end of last week BNG capped the strongest month for SSA Kangaroo deals for over nine months.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent of bookies Paddy Power and Betfair, has sold £812m of new shares to institutional investors to reduce debt and position itself for further growth once sporting events around the world are allowed to resume and its retail stores are permitted to reopen.

Banks are bounding back into the Kangaroo market. On Wednesday, BNP Paribas jumped in to sell the first syndicated Australian dollar senior non-preferred deal since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, later that day the Bank of Nova Scotia announced plans to join the fray with a mandate for a three year bail-inable deal.

A pair of French banks visited the five year point of the Kangaroo curve on Tuesday. BPCE raised A$650m of senior preferred paper, while BNP Paribas mandated for a senior non-preferred deal.

A quartet of SSAs borrowed a combined A$940m ($613.4m) into the Kangaroo market this week, spurring the SSA Aussie dollar market on to its best monthly volume in over nine months.

Unlike many other banks, ANZ has had no need to draw on central bank emergency liquidity lines during the coronavirus pandemic. Its risk-weighted assets have grown but this has been offset by greater retail deposits. And, as head of funding Mostyn Kau revealed, what subordinated debt issuance it does have to do will be for regulatory reasons rather than to do with Covid-19 crisis funding.

Australia smashed its syndication record with a bumper A$19bn ($12.2bn) bond issue that attracted A$53.5bn of orders on Wednesday, while New Zealand set a record of its own as it upped its 2020-21 borrowing programme to NZ$60bn ($35.8bn).

Woolworths reopened the Australian dollar corporate market with a A$1bn ($645m) dual tranche trade on Wednesday, the first from a corporate since the end of February.

The European Investment Bank inaugurated its sustainability awareness bond (SAB) framework in Australian dollars on Tuesday, while on Wednesday NRW.Bank printed the largest SSA Kangaroo so far this year.

JP Morgan has hired Jonas Troeber as its new head of equity syndicate for Australia and New Zealand, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Rentenbank jumped into a quiet Kangaroo market on Thursday to print its first Australian dollar bond since August 2019.