In a year of records in the Australian dollar markets, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group was consistently at the centre of the action, cementing its position as Australasia’s go-to bond house for onshore and offshore issuers alike.
ANZ was a sole or joint lead manager on a whopping 124 Kangaroo, local senior, subordinated and secured issues, excluding self-led deals, during IFR’s review period which translated into a table-topping A$24.5bn (US$18.6bn) in volume terms and an Australian market share of 17.2%.
“In what has been a record year, underpinned by conducive spreads and greater duration, ANZ has been a leader in the domestic market across every asset class,” said ANZ’s global head of syndication, Paul White.
ANZ’s broad-based approach paid dividends in a year when several asset classes posted all-time or post-financial-crisis highs.
In the rates space, ANZ was one of four lead managers for the Australian Office of Financial Management’s record-breaking A$11bn syndicated sale of November 2.75% 21 2028 Treasury bonds in February.
ANZ featured on 14 Commonwealth and state bond tickets, most notably a run of long-dated semi-government offerings that followed on from the establishment of a 30-year sovereign benchmark in late 2016.
Australia’s corporate market has never seen a year like it, having bettered 2012’s previous A$12bn annual record by the end of August.
ANZ helped arrange several landmark deals including Telstra’s A$1bn four and 10-year sale, Investa Office Fund’s inaugural domestic corporate Green bond and the A$1.95bn four-trancher from global beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.
ANZ maintained a clear lead among its Australian peers in SSA Kangaroos and brought several international institutions to the Australian market for the first time, including Bank of Montreal and Lloyds Banking Group.
The bank was also the top pick for global financial institutions looking to raise regulatory capital in Australian dollars, including the A$1bn SEC-registered five-year from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the first Asian financial institution to sell Global bonds in Australian dollars to meet total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirements.
ANZ was co-lead for Goldman Sachs Group’s groundbreaking Kangaroo bond, a first under New York law, and helped Banco Santander print Spain’s first offering of senior non-preferred notes since the country established rules on eligible debt.
ANZ was also an active participant in the booming securitisation market as a joint lead manager on 11 RMBS transactions and four ABS trades totalling A$11.9bn, excluding self-led deals, during the review period.
Across the Tasman Sea, ANZ was New Zealand’s table-topping bookrunner for the 11th year running, bringing all but two of the 15 Kauri bond transactions to market.
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