Australasia Investment Banking Snapshot – August 5, 2011

Australasia Investment Banking Snapshot – August 5, 2011

Record Volume for Kangaroo Bonds
International Finance Corp (IFC) launched its first Kangaroo bond offering for 2011 late July. The 5-year deal priced at US$1.6 billion (A$1.5 billion) is the highest Kangaroo issuance this year from an Agency, Supranational and Sovereign issuer. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, one of the three lead managers for this deal --- along with ANZ (No.2) and Westpac Banking (No.6) --- climbed one spot up to No.4 for YTD ranking of Kangaroo bond underwriters.

Total borrowing from Kangaroo bond issuers reached a year-to-date record volume of US$27.9 billion (A$26.9 billion) in 2011. Germany’s KfW Bankengruppe is the most active issuer this year raising US$6.6 billion (A$6.3 billion) from 15 offerings.

Equity Capital Market Grew 84% Year-on-Year
This week, Australia’s capital raisings in the equity market reached US$50 million from 6 issues, including Drill Torque’s US$14.3 million IPO, bringing Australasia’s year-to-date volume up 84% to US$16.4 billion compared to year-to-date 2010. Follow-on offerings from Australian issuers doubled this year and reached a total of US$15.3 proceeds, accounting for 93% of the region’s equity issuance. Meanwhile, proceeds from Australian-domiciled IPO increased 23% so far this year compared to US$377.7 in the comparable period last year.

Deutsche Bank and UBS -- lead underwriters for Australia’s biggest IPO this year, Collin Foods US$216.2 million IPO-- are tied at the No.1 spot for YTD ranking of Australian IPO underwriters with 23.2% market share each.

Australasia's High Yield Market Stirs
Australasia’s high-yield bond volume grew six-fold amounting to US$3.4 billion from 4 issues bolstered by Reynolds Group Holdings’ US$2.5 billion high-yield bond offering to finance its acquisition of Graham Packaging Co. Australia’s high-yield market raised a total of US$880.0 million from 3 offerings so far this year, up 76% compared to a single US$500 million issuance from the same period in 2010.

Credit Suisse and HSBC Holdings, both underwriters for Reynolds Group’s offering, are tied at the No.1 spot for Australasia’s YTD ranking for high yield debt underwriting, while JP Morgan tops Australia’s HY bond league table.

Please attribute the data to Thomson Reuters.

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