Hyundai Capital issued five-year kangaroo bonds worth 400 million Australian dollars, the financial service unit of Hyundai Motor Group said Monday. This marks the company's second achievement in the field this year, following its issuance of $600 million in global bonds last month.
A kangaroo bond is a foreign bond issued in the Australian market by non-Australian firms that is denominated in Australian dollars. Its main targets are investors based in Australia, Asia and Europe. The kangaroo bond market is regarded as conservative because private companies rarely issue bonds there.
According to the company, it first issued kangaroo bonds in 2013, becoming the first private Korean firm to do so. Last year, it also attracted Australian investors to its bonds. With the second consecutive year of its Kangaroo bond issuance, Hyundai Capital said it is building long-term relations with investors.
"The Australian primary markets had a heavy pipeline with many new issues announced. However, Hyundai Capital was able to successfully garner investors' interest by conducting an investor update conference call before the official book-building process," a Hyundai Capital official said.
"The company was able to gather interest from both onshore and offshore high-quality accounts to achieve a benchmark size transaction at competitive pricing level."
The fresh bonds' interest rate will be 1.3 percentage points higher than the country's benchmark rate. Of the 400 million Australian dollars invested in the bonds, $275 million of the investment will offer fixed rate interest while the remaining $125 million investment will be based on floating rates.