insto - Australian financial markets

NAB issues EUR1.25bn July 2020 bond

National Australia Bank issued a EUR1.25 billion senior unsecured fixed rate bond, maturing 13 July 2020. Coupon is 4 percent annual.

The details of the deal are:

Issuer: National Australia Bank
Ratings: Aa1 neg (Moody’s) AA stab (S&P) AA stab (Fitch)
Issue amount: EUR1.25 billion
Maturity: 13 July 2020
Coupon: 4 percent, annual
Lead managers: Barclays, NAB, UBS
Pricing date: 5 July 2010
Settlement date: 13 July 2010

The US private placement market is on the rebound and Australian corporates are viewed favourably by investors, according to the National Australia Bank’s New York-based head of PP.

Geoff Schmidt is head of US Private Placements for NAB and says the market balance has changed in the last part of 2009 to the advantage of issuers as spreads have narrowed from “in excess” of 500 basis points to around 200 today.

“Spreads were very, very wide for the first half of 2009 and that created some issuer reluctance, so there was a dearth of deal flow for the first six months of the year,” Schmidt told Insto on a visit to Sydney last week.

National Australia Bank (Aa1/AA) launched a GBP600 million 12 year 5.125 per cent Eurobond on 3 December. The deal was reoffered at Gilts +143bps which is at the tight end of guidance of Gilts +145bps area. The offering is NAB’s second public benchmark offering in GBP this year following their GBP500 million 5.5 year in May.

Lead managers of the deal are NAB, RBC and UBS.

NAB launched and priced a CHF325m deal overnight (Australian time) after the market closed on 2 November. The deal was so well received, according to elad manager UBS, that a second, smaller raising for CHF150m was completed the followed day.

Details of the earlier transaction are as follows:

For the second successive day, NAB tapped investors in the Swiss markets. This deal was launched on the back of reverse investor enquiry, following NAB's CHF325m deal earlier in the week, according to lead manager UBS.

Details are as follows: