Australia

Bank of Queensland was able on Thursday to shave off the new issue premium for its new covered bond. It offered a juicy spread at a time when supply of high coupon deals in the asset class is threatened by the European Central Bank’s liquidity operations.

Barclays plans to follow Crédit Agricole and Handelsbanken into the Kangaroo bond market. The UK lender mandated leads for a deal on Wednesday after the other two banks brought deals on Tuesday.

The Asia Pacific Loan Market Association named a new chairman at the annual general meeting in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

SG moves London banker to run Asia syndicate team — Citi loses head of India DCM — ANZ loans banker to relocate to Singapore — MSCI names Korea client head.

Kanagaroo bond market participants welcomed the prospect of ever lower rates in Australian dollars as four SSA borrowers priced taps over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Nelly Harapoff, a director in ANZ’s loan syndication team in Sydney, will be relocating to Singapore.

Société Générale has appointed Pascal Sefrin as its group country head for Australia.

ANZ New Zealand has been informed by its regulator that it can no longer use its own internal models to calculate operational risk, leading to a 60% jump in its capital requirements in this field.

Kangaroo investors filled their pouches to the brim with a bumper World Bank tap on Wednesday. The supranational reopened its February 2024 Kangaroo to print the largest Aussie dollar tap in the SSA market since 2016.

Citi has appointed Marc Luet to be country officer for Australia and head of the bank's Australia and New Zealand cluster.

It was a g’day for Citibank on Friday, as the issuer returned to the Australian dollar market to print its largest ever Kangaroo, according to Dealogic. In recent weeks, the Aussie market has presented a good alternative for FIG issuers looking to sell senior unsecured debt.

National Australia Bank went to investors on Monday with a dual-tranche deal, looking to make use of favourable conditions in the euro market. It was the first Australian name to issue euro-denominated notes since Westpac in November 2018.