Nissan withdrew from Australian car manufacturing over a decade ago to service the local vehicle market purely through imports. This week, however, it returned to Australia in a sense for a transaction in local financial markets. Nissan Financial Services usually issues bonds denominated in yen or USD but in Nissan’s debut in the domestic bond market the Australian arm issued $300 million worth of September 2019 fixed-rate bonds.
The issue was priced at Swap + 100bps and it was arranged by ANZ and Westpac. The sale in the local bond market is a welcome increase in the diversity of investment-grade bonds available for investors and it follows other recent debuts by Apple and The Coca Cola Company. Nissan Financial senior bonds are rated A- by S&P Global Ratings.