ANZ remained the go-to bond house Down Under, where a broad footprint allowed it to nimbly adapt to shifting landscapes.
Once again ANZ participated in the most Australian dollar bond trades (95), spread across a range of sectors, for a 14.7% share of the A$119.3bn (US$85bn) market in 2021, according to Refinitiv data.
“ANZ was focused on providing best in class advice across all sectors during another interesting year for Australian bond markets,” said Paul White, who was head of capital markets until moving to a new role in February 2022.
Overall FIG supply receded as banks made full use of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s A$200bn Term Funding Facility, which provided three-year funding at just 0.1% until its June 30 expiry date.
Meanwhile, the winding down of the RBA’s committed liquidity facility removed much of the domestic balance sheet bid for senior bank paper, contributing to a widening in local credit spreads and more attractive relative pricing outcomes in the deeper US and euro markets.
That meant that the Australian FIG segment was largely devoid of senior supply from major banks, but ANZ remained the dominant bookrunner, with places on nine of the 11 senior and Tier 2 regional and mutual bank tickets.
It was also sole or co-lead on all five Chinese bank issues, as well as all six regional Additional Tier 1 note sales.
More specifically, ANZ helped Bank of Queensland execute all seven of its 2021 transactions, which contributed to fund its A$1.3bn purchase of ME Bank.
Corporate issuance picked up some of the slack from lower than normal bank supply with elevated basis swap levels supporting domestic activity, which broke A$20bn for the first time.
Sustainability was at the forefront of ANZ’s client strategy, as underscored by its central presence in Australia’s fledgling sustainability-linked bond market.
ANZ was a bookrunner on all four SLB transactions in 2021, including June’s inaugural A$1bn seven and 10-year sale from retail-to-chemicals conglomerate Wesfarmers.
It subsequently helped Woolworths, Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial and Optus raise a combined A$1.25bn from their first domestic SLB offerings.
ANZ was the second-place bookrunner in the still elevated semi government sector, as Australian states and territories continued to deal with the fiscal fallout from Covid-19.
It was the highest-ranked local bank for Kangaroo issuance and a creditable fourth in the record-beating ABS market, where it continues to steer clear of non-prime offerings.
Across the Tasman Sea, ANZ headed the New Zealand dollar league table for an astonishing 15th successive year.
It was on 12 of the 16 Kauri trades which raised an annual record NZ$7.7bn (US$5.2bn), including the NZ$1.5bn World Bank five-year sustainable bond in November.
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