Ford Motor Credit (Baa3/BBB-/BBB-) issued A$500m of three-year SEC-registered senior unsecured Global bonds last Thursday, with ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as joint lead managers. The amount raised was well above the A$150m minimum size announced the previous day. The 4.05% December 10 2018s priced at par, in line with asset swaps plus 180bp area guidance. Importantly and unusually, just over half the bonds were allocated to Australian investors. Australian dollar Global bonds, which Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have previously sold, usually hold only limited appeal for domestic investors because, unlike Kangaroos, they are not settled on Austraclear or subject to Australian law. Asian and US investors usually buy the lion's share of Australian dollar Global bonds, limiting the diversification benefits for the issuer, but Ford showed there can also be a decent local bid for such paper.
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