Oceania

I love a good story about the days gone by. I remember when liquid lunches were not just accepted but encouraged. My best ideas often came after downing martinis over a long lunch. But a recent story from Australia makes my wild days of boozy work meals look quite tame.

Danakali, an Australian potash company, has raised a $200m credit facility from African lenders. Proceeds of the syndicated facility will go towards funding the planned Colluli potash project in Eritrea.

For public sector issuers, niche currency deals have offered attractive opportunities for arbitrage funding, with spreads into euros and dollars spurring on demand this year. Meanwhile, strong investor appetite for green paper has seen niche shoots blossom throughout 2019. Frank Jackman reports

Taiwanese banks are increasingly getting sign-offs for larger commitments for loans from southeast Asia, India and Australia, as well as for lower priced deals and longer tenor transactions from these regions. This is as Taiwan’s lenders continue to step away from Chinese borrowers, writes Pan Yue.

Chorus, New Zealand’s largest fixed line telecoms business, launched a €300m no-grow seven year bond on Thursday — the only corporate euro issue of the day.

In its first visit to the capital markets, VisionFund International, a subsidiary of World Vision, the Christian mission focussed children’s charity and non-profit organisation, accessed a competitive method of funding that will help it “to penetrate deeper into rural areas” and benefit those in greatest need.

Ford Motor Credit Company mandated banks on Tuesday to lead a new Australian dollar deal, its first since 2016.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) launched a new sustainable tier two on Friday. Looking to broaden its investor universe in the euro market and enlarge its tier two buffer after changes in Australian regulation, ANZ’s deal attracted orders of 2.5 times its €1bn size.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is getting ready to offer FIG investors a very rare chance to purchase green bank capital in euros, with the issuer set to hit the road for a new tier two in November.

Verizon Communications, the US telecoms group, returned for the second time to the Kangaroo market on Wednesday to extend its curve out to 20 years in what one lead manager described as a first for the market.

There is a growing pipeline of subordinated bond issuance in the FIG market this week, as issuers think about their regulatory requirements and find no reason to wait in light of a recently favoruable backdrop.

BNP Paribas has named Karine Delvallée as its new head of territory for Australia and New Zealand and general manager of the bank’s Australia branch.