MuniFin successfully issues the first USD Benchmark of the year

On Wednesday 8 March 2017, Municipality Finance (MuniFin) successfully launched and priced a new USD 1.0 billion 5-year RegS/144A benchmark loan. This is MuniFin’s first USD benchmark in 2017, following a 10-year EUR-denominated transaction in January.

Taking advantage of a strong market backdrop with good investor demand supported by a backup in yields, MuniFin priced its first USD benchmark of the year, extending its USD curve to the company’s longest benchmark reference point, reaching 2022.

The transaction has a final maturity of 15 March 2022, pays a semi-annual coupon of 2.375% and has an issue price of 99.584%. The deal was priced at +29bps versus mid-swaps, tightened from the initial guidance of mid-swaps +30 area on the back of a strong oversubscribed order book, with a book size of more than USD 1,5 billion.  This equates to a spread of +37.25bps over the US Treasury 1.875% due February 2022. 

BMO Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley acted as joint lead managers.

The orders reflect the high quality of investor interest in MuniFin’s credit, with banks taking the largest share (50%), followed by central banks and official institutions (34%) and asset managers (16%). Interest was well balanced: EMEA took the largest share accounting for 43%, with the remainder spread between the Americas (25%), Asia (22%) and Nordics (10%).