Australia

The forthcoming mortgage securitization by National Australia Bank, which includes a green tranche, will be one of the first times any issuer has issued green and normal bonds at the same time that are identical in almost every other way. As such, it will offer a rare insight into pricing.

Westpac attracted substantial demand for its five year sterling floating rate deal on Thursday, with considerable investor liquidity ensuring a particularly attractive cost of funding.

Westpac has mandated leads for the third sterling five year floating rate covered bond from a bank outside the UK to be issued this year.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) was marketing a new senior bond in the euro market on Wednesday, following a fast start for Australian bank bond issuance in 2018.

National Australia Bank has mandated its own investment bank to lead a potential mortgage securitization that could include a green tranche, making it only the second issuer of green residential mortgage-backed securities.

Westpac Banking Corp raised Rmb500m ($77m) from a three year offshore renminbi bond on Monday, becoming the first dim sum note issuer of 2018.

Westpac Banking Corp is poised to sell the first offshore renminbi bond of the year, opening books for a three year trade on Monday.

LBBW, Santander UK and Westpac all enjoyed fair demand for seven year covered bonds issued this week, suggesting good scope for further issuance in this tenor.

Westpac and Santander UK returned to the euro covered bond market on Thursday. Though early book momentum was marginally stronger in the Australian deal, the oversubscription ratios for both deals was rather low. Meanwhile, Stadshypotek showed that there is still good scope for further sterling covered bond supply.

Europe's largest property company Unibail-Rodamco announced an agreed offer of $15.7bn for the equity of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, on Tuesday. The deal, which valued the enterprise at $24.7bn, was the second retail property consolidation in a week as the sector comes under the M&A spotlight, writes Nigel Owen.

Unibail-Rodamco has taken out a €6.1bn bridge facility from its advisers Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, to finance its acquisition of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, for an enterprise value of $24.7bn.

QBE is set to become the first financial institution to issue a social bond as hybrid capital. The Australian insurance company picked banks on Thursday to arrange the sale of an additional tier one (AT1), the proceeds of which will be used in accordance with its gender-equality bond framework.