insto - Australian financial markets

 The Queensland Government is expected to select up to four lead managers for the $3 billion plus float of Queensland Rail on Monday, and Merrill Lynch and RBS are tipped to win the first two positions.

Both banks have already worked with the Government on the advisory component of its asset sales program.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has hired a team of 10 bankers and traders from Royal Bank of Scotland, led by RBS head of markets, Chris Thomas.

Insto understands that:

Sonic Healthcare has priced US$250 milliom of notes in the US private placement market. Close of the transaction is expected in mid January 2010.

Proceeds of the note offer will be used to repay existing bank debt, and the notes will lengthen Sonic's debt maturity profile.

Gone are the days of the talent shortage. Now there is a surplus of good candidates in the market, changing the balance of power – but the Government's boost to the bonds market means the search for good bankers has already re-started, reports Alexandra Cain.

If there was any doubt that 2009 was the year that the domestic bond market had got its groove back, it was well and truly erased in the third quarter, reports Jonathan Shapiro.

Conditions continued to improve, increasing the confidence of both issuers and investors.

From July to September, over A$30 billion of non-government bonds were printed, making it the busiest period of the year, exceeding Q2 total issuance by A$10 million and more than double the amount issued in the third quarter of 2008.

A better than expected payrolls reading lifted US stocks on Friday while corporate bondholders were given a stark reminder of the power of regulators ahead of the G-20 meeting of finance ministers.

The S&P500 gained 1.3 per cent after the rate of job layoffs eased. August’s non-farm payroll numbers showed a decline of 216,000, better than the forecast 230,000. Downward revisions of previous months' figures however resulted in the unemployment rate reaching 9.7 per cent. This is the highest level in 26 years.

The UK banks have a thing or two to teach our financial players when it comes to boosting regulatory capital, writes Elizabeth Fry.

Who said plain vanilla was the only flavour of 2009? Investment banks are always trying to come up with new and innovative ways of structuring deals.

The global financial crisis has hit banks with a double whammy by both increasing the need for them to improve their capital position and making it difficult for them to raise new capital.

Stocks staged a mild comeback on Tuesday after upbeat macro-economic data from the US and Europe boosted sentiment.

The number of club loans written at the start of the year dropped away sharply as liquidity became a real issue. Activity is now returning, with Asian-backed forward start facilities gaining popularity.

Syndicated bank loans were seen as the financial lifeline for starving corporates a year ago, before fading in Q4 of 2008 and the first quarter this year. Big four advisory firm KPMG, reviewing the corporate finance landscape over the past 12 months, confirms that there was a sharp decline in syndicated loan volumes, starting in the second half of calendar year 2008 and continuing into 2009.

Thomson Reuters came to much the same conclusion, noting: “Only five loan facilities reached general syndication close in Australia in the opening quarter of 2009. First quarter volume totaled only US$3.3 billion compared to US$16.5 billion in the first quarter of 2008.”

Welcome to the club

Syndicated loans teams kept their deal pipelines open, even in the darkest hours of the credit crisis, laying claim to the title of “cornerstone of the markets”. Our roundtable of leading bankers reviewed the year, and made some predictions.