UOB prices AUD2 billion in five-year senior unsecured notes

SYDNEY and SINGAPORE, Jan. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- UOB Sydney Branch has priced AUD2 billion in senior unsecured notes across five-year (5Y) fixed and five-year floating rate tranches. This comprised AUD1.25 billion five-year Fixed-Rate Note (FXD) and AUD750 million five-year Floating-Rate Note (FRN) tranches, which were priced on 21 January at the three-month Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW) plus 0.72%.

Pricing: Relative Value versus Australian Major Banks and Regional Peers

• Priced 2 basis points (bps) inside of the most recent Australian Major Bank 5Y Senior (CBA: +74 bp vs UOB: +72 bp) 
• Priced flat to an Australian major bank 5Y senior unsecured new issue in today's market, representing no new issue concession
• UOB leveraged one of the flattest 3-5yr tenor of 13 bps today vs. a peak of 28 bps in the post-Covid era
• Price the tightest 5Y A$ bank senior unsecured transaction globally since UOB's own A$ 5Y in November 2021
• Priced flat to 1 bp tighter vs. UOB US$ 5Y Senior, which was also more impacted by headlines vs. the more defensive nature of the AUD bond market 

Investor Demand

• This transaction demonstrates our continued engagement with AUD investors.
• UOB has raised two AUD2 billion transactions across both 2025 and 2026, with a domestic investor allocation of approximately 55%
• UOB offered both floating and fixed rate tranches to maximise investor participation given strong investor demand for 5-year notes due to the higher spread and yield offered amidst the multi-year tight spread environment
• This trade also captured robust fund managers, corporations and official institutions demand, at 58% for the fixed rate tranche and 29% for the floating rate tranche. 58% for the fixed rate tranche is one of the highest real money participations in AUD bond offerings from non-domestic banks
• This strong investor interest resulted in UOB being able to print the largest non-domestic 5Y fixed rate tranche
• The transaction was announced on 20 January (Tuesday), and the strong combined orderbooks of >AUD3.38 bn overnight gave UOB the confidence to launch the transaction on 21 January (Wednesday)

Ms Koh Chin Chin, Head of Group Treasury, Research and Customer Advocacy, UOB, said, "We are happy to have offered investors relative value through our choice in tenor whilst achieving our objectives in both size and pricing, and are very pleased to have seen the continued strong support from the investor community despite global markets sentiment softening this week."

Transaction Statistics

• Achieved the largest peak orderbook of AUD5.42 bn for an Asian A$ 5Y bank senior
• Final orderbook of >AUD$$4.97 billion
• For FXD, 
• Robust investor demand from Fund managers/Corporations/Official institutions ~58%, Banks ~37%, Private banks/Hedge funds/Others ~2%, Money markets ~3%
• Diversified geography from Australia/New Zealand ~62%, Asia ~37%, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) ~1%
• For FRN, 
• Robust investor demand from Fund managers/Corporations/Official institutions ~29%, Banks ~63%, Private banks/Hedge funds/Others ~5%, Money markets ~3%
• Diversified geography from Australia/New Zealand ~54%, Asia ~45%, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) ~1%

 

source: United Overseas Bank