Corporate

Summary: Corporate bond spreads stable on average; swap spreads tighter; iTraxx up 1.75 points; local issuance disappears; no RMBS transactions; volumes subside in kangaroo primary market.

Corporate yields generally tracked the rises of their Commonwealth Government counterparts and the median spread finished the week unchanged. The majority of spreads’ week-on-week changes at the individual level were within a range of -2bps to +4bps. There no particularly notable exceptions except at the short end where spreads almost all tightened more noticeably.

One of the two other measures of corporate risk, swap-to-bond spreads, narrowed at the front of the curve but widened at the long end. The other measure, credit default swap premiums, again increased on average. The Australian credit default swap index, the iTraxx Australia Series 36, finished 1.75 points higher at 74.50 points.

Volumes in the primary market for corporate bonds and notes dropped away to nothing in the Australia Day-shortened week. No bonds or notes were priced by local entities or their subsidiaries, whereas in the previous week issuance amounted to $4.7 billion. There were no asset-backed transactions.

There were no primary market transactions for asset-backed securities during the week.

Volumes also subsided in the primary market for kangaroo bonds and there were just $0.25 billion worth of transactions for the week.

At the very start of the week, Kommunalbanken Norway issued a new line of August 2032s at ACGB + 60bps, raising $100 million.

Several days later, KfW Bankengruppe tapped its February 2025 line for $100 million at ACGB + 22bps and then
International Finance Corporation tapped its May 2028 line for $50 million at ACGB + 50bps a day later.

Interested readers can find more details as well as other bond transactions in our tables via the link below.

ISSUER	MATURITY	COUPON (%)	RATING	WEEK HIGH	WEEK LOW	CLOSING YIELD	Δ WEEK	Δ MONTH
NAB	24-Mar-22	3.25	AA-	0.15	0.15	0.15	-0.01	-0.02
CBA	30-Mar-22	3.25	AA-	0.14	0.14	0.14	-0.01	-0.04
Optus	17-Jun-22	4.00	A	0.52	0.47	0.47	-0.05	0.01
GE Capital	8-Aug-22	5.50	BBB+	0.54	0.51	0.52	0.01	0.03
Optus	23-Aug-22	3.25	A	0.65	0.62	0.62	-0.04	0.10
Apple Inc	28-Aug-22	3.70	AA+	0.43	0.40	0.41	0.01	0.08
Wells Fargo	7-Sep-22	5.25	A-	0.61	0.56	0.59	0.04	0.09
Melbourne Airport	15-Sep-22	4.00	BBB+	0.63	0.60	0.61	-0.02	0.05
Telstra	16-Sep-22	4.00	A	0.60	0.53	0.53	-0.06	0.07
Stockland	23-Nov-22	4.50	A-	0.73	0.64	0.65	-0.01	0.13
ANZ	16-Aug-23	5.00	AA-	1.15	1.04	1.09	0.06	0.17
Transpower NZ	28-Aug-23	5.75	AA-	1.13	1.06	1.13	0.06	0.23
Mirvac Finance	18-Sep-23	3.50	BBB+	1.39	1.34	1.39	0.04	0.26
Qantas	10-Oct-23	4.40	BB+	2.15	2.03	2.10	0.09	0.23
Australia Post	13-Nov-23	5.50	A+	1.37	1.27	1.33	0.07	0.23
Westpac	21-Nov-23	4.40	AA-	1.32	1.20	1.26	0.07	0.19
Fonterra	26-Feb-24	5.50	A-	1.51	1.38	1.46	0.10	0.25
NAB	11-Mar-24	5.00	AA-	1.50	1.39	1.45	0.07	0.24
Rabobank Nederland (Aust)	11-Apr-24	5.50	A+	1.68	1.57	1.62	0.06	0.22
CBA	27-May-24	4.75	AA-	1.63	1.53	1.59	0.09	0.28
AusNet	21-Jun-24	4.00	BBB+	2.05	1.93	2.03	0.11	0.25
Macquarie Bank	7-Aug-24	1.75	A+	1.97	1.87	1.92	0.09	0.26
Wells Fargo	27-Aug-24	4.75	A+	2.03	1.91	1.97	0.07	0.23
University of Sydney	28-Aug-25	3.75	Aa1	2.19	2.09	2.13	0.08	0.30
Apple Inc	10-Jun-26	3.60	AA+	2.25	2.12	2.18	0.08	0.29
CBA	11-Jun-26	4.20	AA-	2.36	2.25	2.30	0.07	0.37
ANZ	22-Jul-26	4.00	AA-	2.38	2.26	2.31	0.07	0.36
Qantas	12-Oct-26	4.75	BB+	3.35	3.21	3.29	0.10	0.32
Australia Pacific Airports	4-Nov-26	3.75	BBB+	2.87	2.76	2.82	0.07	0.28
CBA	17-Nov-26	3.25	AA-	2.23	2.10	2.16	0.06	0.23
Australia Post	1-Dec-26	4.00	A+	2.38	2.26	2.32	0.07	0.30
WSO Finance	31-Mar-27	4.50	A-	2.69	2.57	2.63	0.08	0.30
Telstra	19-Apr-27	4.00	A	2.58	2.47	2.52	0.06	0.31
Asciano	12-May-27	5.40	BBB-	3.72	3.59	3.66	0.08	0.26
Fonterra	2-Nov-27	4.00	A-	2.66	2.54	2.59	0.06	0.32
Macquarie	15-Dec-27	4.15	BBB+	3.23	3.12	3.15	0.06	0.32
AusNet	21-Aug-28	4.20	A-	2.95	2.84	2.88	0.05	0.29