Westpac New Zealand is planning a roadshow starting on Monday, 2 June, after having early last month become the first New Zealand issuer to have its programme registered by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand after dedicated legislation became effective in December.

Westpac NZ’s global covered bond programme is the only programme listed in the Reserve Bank’s covered bond register, with a registration date of 4 April.

New Zealand’s legislative covered bond framework came into effect in December after its passage through parliament was completed in November.

The last New Zealand benchmark euro covered bond issue was a Eu500m five year deal for ASB on 17 October, which was priced at 25bp over mid-swaps. Westpac Securities NZ Limited, the issuing entity, only has two covered bonds outstanding: a Eu1bn (NZ$1.59bn) June 2016 issue, launched in June 2011, and a Sfr325m (NZ$424m, Eu266m) April 2015.

Fitch noted the lack of New Zealand covered bond supply so far this year in Asia-Pacific research published recently.

“This lull can be attributed to issuers only coming to market at specific times in the year,” said Fitch analysts. “These same issuers are also amending their programme documentation in order to register their programmes with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand under the new covered bond legislation.

“We expect issuance from these programmes to resume once the programmes have been successfully registered.”

Fitch yesterday (Thursday) affirmed the triple-A rating of Westpac NZ’s covered bond programme.