Australia

The Bank of Montreal followed Toronto Dominion’s lead on Wednesday to join the Canadian bail-inable Kangaroo frenzy, placing A$750m of five year debt.

Australia’s bank capital regulator has refused to back down from requiring the country’s largest banks to meet new loss-absorbing debt targets with tier two bonds, raising the prospect of a wave of supply over the next four years. The question now is: how much will it cost them? Tyler Davies reports.

The International Finance Corp (IFC) started its 2019/20 funding year on Tuesday with a pair of Swedish krona green bond taps in the private market.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said on Tuesday that Australia’s largest banks would have to use tier two capital to meet their requirements for loss-absorbing debt capacity. But the new targets will start off lower than previously proposed.

Following on from Barclays’ Kangaroo return last month, two more foreign banks looked towards the Australian market on Wednesday. Toronto Dominion Bank placed its inaugural bail-inable Kangaroo and BNP Paribas printed its first Australian dollar AT1 note.

ANZ has restarted its loan syndications business in Europe, hiring two senior bankers in London.

Standard Chartered sailed into uncharted waters on Tuesday to make its Kangaroo debut. The bank issued A$1bn ($700m) across fixed and floating rate tranches, following Barclays' A$800m return to the currency last week.

CNP Assurances is planning to offer investors a rare green bond from the insurance sector, and the intended use of proceeds looks more worthy than some previous efforts — for example, from QBE Insurance Group. However, issuing a sustainability bond is of less relevance for insurers’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities than it is for other types of issuer.

Barclays returned to the Australian dollar market this week for its second Kangaroo, placing a triple tranche trade that was four times covered. The demand for Kangaroo paper could see more issuers follow Barclays, according to one DCM banker.

Malaysia’s utilities and infrastructure company Malakoff Corp has launched a A$140m ($96.8m) refinancing loan into general syndication.

Deutsche Bahn arrived with its first Kangaroo since 2018 this week. The MTN follows a quartet of public SSA issues that arrived earlier this week.

A quartet of public sector borrowers placed paper in the Australian dollar market this week. Two European SSAs priced sustainable and climate awareness bonds: the European Investment Bank priced its third climate awareness Kangaroo on Tuesday, while Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten brought its sustainability bond programme back to the Aussie market on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a pair of agencies raised funding in Australian dollars on Thursday: Export Development Canada and Eurofima both tapped Kangaroos.