Oceania

The Australian dollar market, a popular funding pool for SSAs, will require a pragmatic approach in terms of price expectations next year, said senior SSA bankers.

Australian covered bonds, which offer among the widest spreads for the high credit quality, have been better bid in the secondary market over the past two weeks, but on Wednesday buying interest was reported further out along the curve. The news comes after Fitch and Moody’s published relatively upbeat assessments of the Australian and New Zealand covered bond markets.

Doosan Power Systems (DPS) and the Sydney branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China started attracting interest from bond investors on November 30, opening books for their respective dollar deals.

Intel, the US technology company, raised A$800m ($578.44m) in its debut Kangaroo deal on Tuesday afternoon, drawing strong demand from Asian investors.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has plans to drop the risk retention requirement for Australian securitization issuers, according to proposed revisions to its prudential framework.

Intel, the American technology company, raised $A800m in its debut Kangaroo deal on Tuesday afternoon, drawing strong demand from Asian investors.

National Australia Bank printed a €750m seven year covered bond on Monday. But the deal didn’t fly off the shelf, even though it offered a substantial premium to other Australian covered bonds. The lack of European Central Bank repo eligibility and slackening demand in the seven year area was blamed.

Standard Chartered’s former head of debt capital markets for Hong Kong, Peter Szekely, has moved to a new position at Australia and New Zealand Bank.

Citi has made the changes to its Australia and New Zealand debt franchise, promoting James Arnold and Ian Campbell to lead the business.

National Bank of Australia issued a €750m seven year covered bond on Monday. The deal didn’t fly off the shelf, even though it offered a substantial premium to other bonds. The lack of ECB repo eligibility and slackening demand in the intermediate part of the curve was blamed.

Six borrowers raised nearly €5bn in the covered bond market this week, once again surpassing supply expectations. The star attraction, notable for both its size and tenor, was a €1.5bn three year from the Norwegian issuer, Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt.

Westpac has mandated leads and opened books for a dollar benchmark covered bond, to be priced on Monday. And in euros, Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has mandated leads for a €500m no-grow seven year benchmark, to be launched on Tuesday.