insto - Australian financial markets

Westpac prices 5-yr JPY65 billion fixed/floating Samurai

Westpac has priced a 5-year JPY65 billion Samurai issue, with the floating rate tranche fetching 3-month Yen Libor + 65 basis points and the fixed rate tranche issuing at Yen swap +50 basis points for a coupon of 1.07 percent, a market participant said.

The issue was initially to be JPY50 billion, but was capped at JPY65 billion by the issuer, although there appeared to be unmet demand, the market participant said.

The issue was joint lead-managed by Citigroup, Daiwa Securities and Nomura.

The prospect of a hung parliament, the first in 70 years, will unsettle financial markets with increased volatility seen in equities, the Australian dollar and bonds when markets open this morning.

A$4.525 bn in bonds maturing in August – Perpetual

Friday

"Never waste a good crisis" is advice usually attributed to Machiavelli, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble appear to have adopted it as a mantra. One would assume the German financial services regulator, Bafin, would have anticipated the likely market reaction to Germany's  ban on naked short-selling of German-listed securities and CDS transactions. Was it moralising desperation as claimed by commentators, or is there another explanation for this precipitate action?

The first week of May saw the RBA raise the cash rate once again by 25bp to 4.5pct. This hike was in line with consensus expectations and is the sixth increase in the current cycle that started in October 2009. In spite of this news, it was another fairly quiet week in the debt markets, with BNG conducting two transactions, an A$50m tap to its Jan 2015 EMTN and a NZ$50m tap to its Dec 2014 EMTN. Telstra also launched and priced a NZ$100m Kauri bonds, after holding a roadhsow the week before.

*EMTN*

After the Anzac long weekend, the markets remained fairly quiet early on in the week, and picked up slightly towards the end with Rabobank and BNG both pricing EMTN’s. Meanwhile news of the largest ECM deal of the year by QBE filtered through, on Friday and also on Friday Telstra Corporation Limited held a Kauri bond investor update hosted by BNZ, CBA and Westpac. Meanwhile SACL also announced that it was holding a roadshow in Melbourne and Sydney this week to give an update on its operating and financial performance.

*EMTN*