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St.George Bank (A+/Aa2/A+) (St.George) says it does not expect to return to the term funding markets in the near term after selling A$1 billion (US$849.7 million) of RMBS securities under its Crusade securitisation programme in a private placement on September 1.

August  brought mixed messages in the hybrid market, with ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) launching a convertible preference share (CPS) offer while National Australia Bank (NAB) elected to convert the A$600 million (US$514 million) of T1 notes it issued in a private placement to Deutsche Bank in December last year.

New South Wales (NSW) will issue a mini budget by the end of October as the postponement of its plan to sell off electricity assets led Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to revise its outlook on the state to negative. An S&P report, issued after the Australian close on August 28, had a negative impact on the price of bonds of both NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) and other Australian states.

Bank of New Zealand (AA/Aa2) (BNZ) says domestic demand for bank paper is holding up in the wake of a self-led NZ$60 million (US$42.29 million) increase to its 2011 line, which priced at 90 basis points over three-month mid-rate swap on August 25.

Bank of New Zealand (AA/Aa2) (BNZ) returned to its domestic market on August 13, pricing a NZ$100 million (US$70.79 million) tap to its 2015 line – the second time the issuer has come to market with a five-year plus transaction this month following the launch of an increase to its 2013 on August 7.

Pricing of the A$525 million (US$453.39 million) 2010 deal brought by Bank of Scotland Australia Branch (AA/Aa1) (BoS) on August 14 is indicative of an environment in which investors are differentiating more between credits in the same ratings band, fund managers say.

Westpac Banking Corporation (AA/Aa1/AA-) (Westpac) priced a A$610 million (US$530.21 million) increase to its 2012 line on August 13 but has remained silent about the distribution of the self-led transaction. The 2012 bond now has a total of A$2.062 billion outstanding.

ANZ Banking Group (AA/Aa1) (ANZ) brought a total of A$1.17 billion (US$1.02 billion) of increases to the domestic market in a self-led deal on August 11, adding to the fixed tranche of its 2010 bond and both the fixed and floating portions of its 2011.

The fifth transaction from HSBC Sydney Branch (AA/Aa1) in less than a month was brought to market on August 8, with the issuer saying organic balance sheet expansion is likely to keep the branch active as a local borrower in future.

World Bank (AAA/Aaa) closed its New Zealand retail note offer on July 11, raising the target issue amount of NZ$100 million (US$70 million).

National Australia Bank (AA/Aa1/AA) (NAB) has issued a A$200 million (US$178.6 million) FRN private placement, priced on August 7 2008 via ABN AMRO.

On August 7 Municipality Finance (MuniFin) (AAA/Aaa) priced a A$90 million (US$82 million) increase to its April 18 2011 Kangaroo bond, bringing the total outstanding in this line to A$390 million. The tap was led by Daiwa SMBC.