Listing Of $5.5b LGFA Bonds Increases NZDX Size By 41%

NZX is pleased to welcome the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) to the NZX Debt Market today. LGFA has listed all six existing series of its bonds on NZX’s Debt Market, representing a total principal amount of $5.56 billion.

The listings increase the capitalisation of NZX’s Debt Market to approximately $19.09 billion or 7.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an increase of 41%. This is in addition to the $1.99 billion of other new debt that has already been listed this year on the NZX Debt Market.

The LGFA debt listing is another key milestone in the development of New Zealand’s capital markets. The 2009 Capital Market Development Taskforce report ‘Capital Markets Matter’ set out a series of recommendations to overhaul New Zealand’s capital markets, including broadening the range of quality debt offerings on the market by increasing the availability of retail debt offerings from government, local authorities and government-owned businesses – including long-dated debt.

NZX CEO Tim Bennett commented: “New Zealand needs deep, liquid capital markets to fund business growth and drive economic development. Today’s LGFA debt listing demonstrates the progress we are making in our capital markets and our commitment to getting more ‘products on the shelves’ for investors.”

LGFA CEO Mark Butcher commented: “Listing on the NZX Debt Market will further extend our retail investor base, provide greater price transparency to all investors and achieve best practice from a governance perspective. Listing should also help increase secondary market liquidity in LGFA Bonds and assist retail investors with greater access to a highly rated and liquid fixed income investment.”