Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) approached banks on Monday to refinance around AUD 1.2bn (USD 753.9m) of debt linked to the Queensland’s Titles Registry, according to four sources.

QIC is being advised by Grant Samuel, they said, adding that banks have been asked to propose tenors for the two tranches of debt being refinanced.

The priority tranche is the registry’s AUD 630m term loan maturing in June 2026. If the market response is positive, the AUD 560m due in June 2028 will be included in the refinancing, one of the sources said.

The registry was valued at AUD 7.8bn in 2021 when the Queensland government transferred it into a QIC-managed Queensland Future (Debt Retirement) Fund.

Once the fund was established, an AUD 2.1bn loan was taken out against the Queensland Titles Registry to provide the fund liquidity and support Queensland’s credit rating, according to the Queensland Audit Office website.

Infralogic reported at the time the financing included capital market and bank debt and was the first debt raised against the Titles Registry itself.

According to Dealogic data, special purpose vehicle Registry Finance Pty Ltd, created to set Titles Queensland’s initial capital structure, had AUD 2.26bn in loans across six tranches in June 2021.

Banks involved in the financing were: BofA Securities, CIBC World Markets, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co Ltd, Glencore Canadian Pension Funds Trust, Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie VaG (HDI), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, ING, KDB Bank, Kwasa Breccia Designated Activity Co, Mizuho, MUFG, National Australia Bank, Scotiabank, SG Corporate & Investment Banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Swiss Re Capital Markets Corp and Westpac.

Titles Queensland registers all land-related transactions in Queensland and operates water allocations, foreign land ownership and leasehold registers, according to its website.

Australia’s state land registries formed the Australian Land Registry Operators in November last year to operate more than AUD 10trn in residential property by value.

QIC and Grant Samuel declined to comment.