Westpac sells upsized C$275 million 10-year notes; Potash widens; Canada sells C$3 billion

By Cristal Cody

Prospect News, Oct. 6 - In the lone corporate deal of the week in the Canadian bond market, Australian bank Westpac Banking Corp. reopened its December 2014 bond to sell an upsized C$275 million on Wednesday, a source said.

The deal initially had been pegged at C$200 million.

Westpac priced the 3.75% two-year notes at a spread of 130 basis points over the Canada 2014 benchmark bond.

The bonds were priced "a little bit on the tight side," a source said.

The lead managers of the deal were Scotia Capital and RBC Capital Markets Corp.

The issue has C$400 million outstanding.

"It went really, really well," the source said. "The market's been fairly starved for product and all this talk of quantitative easing got everything moving. People seem to be switching out more fixed income and more yield. This fit the bill today."

Elsewhere in the corporate bond market, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.'s notes were flat to slightly wider on the hostile $40 billion takeover offer on the table from BHP Billiton Ltd., traders said Wednesday.

Potash has rejected Melbourne, Australia-based mining giant BHP's offer as too low.

Saskatoon, Sask.-based Potash is the world's largest manufacturer of potash, a key crop nutrient.

Potash's notes due 2019 traded on Wednesday at 150 bps bid, 135 bps offered, a trader said.

The notes due 2020 were seen with a bid of 150 bps.

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