The coupons for the four-year and seven-year tranches were 3.93% per annum and 4.80% per annum respectively, implying spreads of 140 basis points and 158 basis points over comparable government yields on the book-building dates.
John te Wechel, General Manager, Group Funding of CBA, said: We are delighted to be the first Australian issuer to access the Thai baht bond market. Very importantly, it has broadened our investor base and provided a competitive cost of funds without the support of the Australian Government guarantee.
CBA is one of two foreign issuers which obtained permission from the Thai Ministry of Finance to issue baht-denominated bonds in February 2009. CBA’s bonds mark the reopening of the market for foreign issuers since it shut down in September 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis. HSBC acted as the sole book runner and sole lead manager for this transaction.