Oceania

Fearful of missing out and in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into higher yielding covered bonds offered by Canadian, Australian and Swedish issuers this week. A negative new issue premium Royal Bank of Canada’s five year epitomised the state of investor frenzy.

Three companies have signed sustainability-linked and green loans this week, as the product's seemingly inexorable rise brings it to new companies and into new countries.

Investa Commercial Property Fund (ICPF) has signed the first green loan from an Australian borrower, as sustainability-linked lending continues to gain global traction.

BAML brings in Australia ECM chief – Credit Suisse names Indonesia IB head – Goldman appoints TMT co-lead – Eastspring hires new CEO – BOC lends to Sri Lanka – FTSE Russell tracks Chinese green bonds

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Mark Warburton as its new head of Australia equity capital markets, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Fearful of missing out and, in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into six covered bonds on Tuesday with a combined value of more than €6bn.Royal Bank of Canada’s deal epitomised the state of investor frenzy as it was able to issue the largest deal of the year with a negative new issue premium.

Rating: A1/AA-/AA-

ANZ became the first non-UK bank to issue a Sonia-linked covered bond on Friday. The competitive and sizeable funding could well spur follow-on issuance from another non-UK bank early next week.

Westpac issued the first dollar covered bond of the year this week, while its New Zealand subsidiary hit the euro market following the demand unearthed by an earlier deal from ANZ New Zealand.

Westpac New Zealand drew strong support for its five year covered bond on Thursday which took advantage of the strong demand and performance identified in ANZ New Zealand’s earlier deal.

Euro covered bonds issued by ANZ New Zealand, Caffil and National Bank of Canada on Tuesday provided “the least worst option” in a spread widening environment, said bankers.

Westpac has issued the first dollar covered bond of the year, and its first in that currency in more than two years. The borrower took advantage of a quiet market to issue a sizeable $2bn five year deal that provided a considerable cost saving to senior unsecured — sending a strong signal to other issuers.