Australia

Zurich Insurance sold its first bonds in the Australian dollar market this week, as it looks to finance its recent acquisition of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s life insurance business.

Credit Suisse has made two new hires for its electronic trading business in Australia, as it adds resources to launch a new algorithmic platform in the region.

A trio of Australian issuers had a mixed response to their corporate bond issuance this week. Sydney Airport was priced with no new issue premium, but compatriot Stockland found itself paying a 20bp premium two days later.

Australian property company Stockland was the first Australian issuer to sell a green bond in Europe in 2014. The company finally returned to the euro market on Thursday, but chose not to go with a green bond, on the same day as compatriot Ausgrid chose to price its new deal.

Caisse Francaise De Financement Local (Caffil) found good demand for a €1.5bn 10 year with a final spread close to what it could have achieved before the covered bond purchase programme begun. The deal followed a €1bn five year from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Digital Asset, the financial services distributed ledger firm headed by Blythe Masters, said on Wednesday that it had hired a JP Morgan executive to work on its project with the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

Bank of China (BOC) returned to the bond market with a Belt and Road blockbuster this week, raising around $3.2bn from a multi-tranche, multi-currency deal. Addison Gong reports.

Asiamoney, in association with National Australia Bank, invites all fixed income investors in Asia and Europe to participate in the Australian Fixed Income Poll 2018. The online poll will take only five to 10 minutes to complete.

Funding officials said green bonds had stimulated other sustainability work across their organisations at the Climate Bonds Initiative conference in London on Tuesday.

Swissport, the aviation services group, this week launched a €325m add-on to its euro leveraged loan to finance its acquisition of Aerocare, a peer based in Australia.

Bank of Ireland is planning to bring the first covered bond from Ireland in over two years, while Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation is lining up a debut trade in sterling.

Austrian wood products manufacturer Egger Holzwerkstoffe sold its third hybrid capital deal on Monday, with its largest size and lowest coupon to date. At the same time, Brisbane Airport announced plans to diversify its investor base.