UOB announced after trading hours on Tuesday that its Sydney branch intends to issue A$750 million in floating rate notes due in October 2025 with a coupon of the three-month bank bill swap reference rate plus 0.59 per cent per annum payable quarterly in arrear.

 

This comes under the US$15 billion Global Medium Term Note Programme, with the issue date of the notes expected to be Oct 27, 2020.

 

This is the largest benchmark issuance in Australian dollars issued by UOB, and also the largest single tranche senior unsecured transaction from a Singapore bank and the largest in Asia, excluding Japan this year.

 

With a final order book in excess of A$1 billion, excluding lead manager interest, UOB is seeing its lowest five-year floating rate note spread for financial institution credit since 2010.

 

UOB said that 70 per cent of notes were allocated to Australian investors, and the rest to Asian investors " sizeable orders" were received from investors from Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

 

About a fifth were allocated to middle-market investors, also known as small to mid-sized corporate and institutional investors.

 

Koh Chin Chin, head of the Central Treasury Unit, UOB, said: " Our two-pronged approach to the Australian dollar market this year - through our recent three-year notes issuance and this new five-year public offering - has enabled us to maximise our investor reach for broader participation, given different investors' tenor preferences."

 

The bank moved quickly to seize the opportune market window on the back of improved investor sentiment this week, she said.

 

ANZ has been appointed as the sole lead manager and book runner for the notes.