In what was undoubtedly the deal of the week, Wesfarmers (rated BBB+) priced A$500 million of five-year bonds at swap plus 260 basis points on Friday. The highly anticipated deal was launched on Thursday for a minimum of A$250 million with pricing indicated at 275 bps over. Wesfarmers sold A$400 million of fixed-rate bonds and A$100 of floating-rate notes.The Wesfarmers' issue adds to the steadily growing but still very small volume of true corporate issuance seen this year. True corporate issuance for the year to date totals only A$2.4 billion or just 3.3 per cent of total year-to-date issuance. This should be viewed in the context of no issuance at all in 2008 and just A$1.2 billion of issuance in 2007, if credit wrapped utility issues are ignored.Interestingly, with the exception of CFS Retail Property Trust, all of the true corporate issuance seen this year has come from 'BBB' category issuers and, with the exception of the three-year Holcim issue, has been for five years. This is obviously where the banks have struggled to exhibit any significant appetite.It is tempting to make the argument that the banks may continue to struggle to meet corporate demand for funding in this apparent sweet spot, given the pricing of the Wesfamer's issue. At the end of April, Tabcorp opened issuance in the niche at 425 bps over, a much wider margin than obtained by Wesfarmers last week.However, the pricing of the Wesfarmers' issue appears to be exceptional and obviously qualifies it as a market darling. All the other true corporate issues in this niche have priced in a 400-450 bps range, Leighton Finance being the last to do so, only a month ago.