STRONG demand from lenders helped wrap up Fuji Bank's HK$600 million five-year floating rate certificate of deposit (FRCD) in hours yesterday instead of the three days expected.
Shunsuke Amanai, senior vice-president and head of new markets group with deal arranger Fuji International Finance, said investor appetite was so strong that Fuji Finance had to scale back allocations on the FRCD, which carried a coupon of 37.5 basis points over the six-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate (HIBOR).
'We finished the syndication within 24 hours and we had some prime institutions joining the transaction from all over the world.' Initially, Fuji had some apprehensions about the pricing, Mr Amanai said. It offered investors an all-in yield of 45 basis points for the five-year deal.
However, strong investor interest in both floating-rate notes (FRNs) and FRCDs appeared to underpin the deal.
Mr Amanai said Westpac Finance Asia joined the deal as a lead manager and seven joined as managers. Fuji Finance was allocated HK$290 million of the deal and Westpac $100 million.
The managers were allocated $30 million instead of the original $50 million they were offered and comprised Banque Brussels Lambert Singapore, Generale Belgian Bank, Den Danske Bank Aktieselskab Hong Kong, Goldman Sachs Asia, Oakreed Financial Services, Peregrine Fixed Income and SocGen Asia.
Five banks joined the Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) mammoth US$1.73 billion FRN launched last week in London.