On January 12, 2016 Municipality Finance (MuniFin) priced a highly successful GBP 300 million long 3yr benchmark. On January 13, 2016 the bond was upsized by a further 25 million to bring the total outstanding amount to GBP 325 million. The deal pays a coupon of 1.25 % and pays a spread of +50 bp over the UKT 4.50 % March 7 2019. Joint lead managers for the new transaction were Citi, Nomura and Scotiabank.
UK accounts took 37 % of the transaction and 33 % of the transaction was allocated to EMEA (excl. UK) accounts. Asian investors represented 17 % of the allocation and Americas 13 %. Central Banks and official institutions were the largest group by 60 % followed by Fund managers (23 %) and Financial Institutions (17 %).
– Having monitored the market for a long time already, we decided to take advantage of the available issuance window and favorable swap dynamics by going for Sterling as our first benchmark line of 2016, says MuniFin’s Head of Funding, Joakim Holmström.
– We are very pleased with the outcome of this transaction and especially the strong participation from the Global Central Bank and the UK Asset Manager community is a great statement of our strong credit quality and investors’ continuous support for our benchmark strategy, Holmström concludes.