Online articles

• Australian credit around the world: part three – UK investors

  As part of a year-long project to gauge the opinions of international credit investors on Australasian-origin product, KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank took the third part of the series to London in April. UK-based investors share their views on geopolitical risk, managing credit in a continuing low-yield environment and investing in bonds issued by Australian credits.

• Do the right thing

  It is easy to be cynical about the burgeoning socially responsible investment (SRI) debt sector, largely because the market advantages are fairly marginal to both issuers and investors. Getting past this cynicism requires an acceptance that there is a groundswell of market participants that simply recognise the need to ‘do better’.

• Fixed-income investor survey: focus turns inwards

  The H1 2017 edition of the Fitch Ratings (Fitch)-KangaNews Fixed-Income Investor Survey has a domestic risk factor with a clear lead at the top of the agenda for Australian fund managers. The domestic buy side is increasingly concerned about the housing market, though it remains fairly confident about credit quality and spread direction.

• From little things...

  In 2007, to commemorate the birth of the Kauri market for supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) issuers, BNZ committed to planting 100 Kauri trees in New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula for each transaction it arranged. As the market approaches its 10th anniversary, BNZ took a group of the biggest Kauri issuers to see the plantation and reflect on the sector’s evolution.

• From small to large steps, Telstra makes a giant leap in domestic market

  Lead managers on Telstra Corporation (Telstra)’s A$1 billion (US$752 million) multi-tranche domestic deal tell KangaNews that following a succession of smaller steps the domestic market has taken a giant leap forward with this latest transaction. According to KangaNews data, the deal is Telstra’s largest-ever domestic transaction and it contains the biggest 10-year non-credit-wrapped tranche issued by a...

• Green bond lift off

  If socially responsible fixed-income asset classes, and in particular green bonds, become a consistent component of the Australian debt market it seems likely that March-April 2017 will be looked back on as a landmark period. Issuance volume hit an all-time high, including a clutch of breakthrough and innovative transactions.

• KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner

  The KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner, held on 21 March in Sydney, celebrated the winners of the KangaNews Awards 2016. KangaNews is proud to share a flavour of the dinner, which brings together participants in the Australian and New Zealand debt markets from across the two countries and all around the world. KangaNews would like to thank all the guests for contributing to such a memorable evening, and for supporting...

• KangaNews SRI Summit 2017 event report: next steps

  In March, KangaNews hosted its third annual Socially Responsible Investment Seminar in Sydney – at a time in which environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles are planting deep roots in the local investor base and being met by a greater flow of targeted product. Together with its headline sponsor, TD Securities, KangaNews presents a flavour of Australia’s thought leadership in the socially...

• Kangaroo strategy pays off for CAF as Australian investor interest notches up

  Australian dollars remain an important and reliable route to market for CAF – Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) when its core markets are affected by volatility, the issuer tells KangaNews in the wake of its debut Australian dollar deal of 2017. The issuer says it is also beginning to reap the benefits of its engagement with domestic investors.

• Kiwibank’s capital kerfuffle halts bond issuance in midstream

  Kiwibank’s decision to pull a planned Kangaroo transaction between pricing and settlement was driven by a preliminary Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) view that the issuer’s outstanding tier-one and tier-two securities may not comply with the local capital-adequacy regime.

• Koreans call in

  Since 2012, Korean-origin issuance has quietly become one of the mainstays of the sub-triple-A Kangaroo market – and some of the same borrowers have also started to make their presence felt in New Zealand. There is a lingering sense of untapped potential in these issuers, some of which say they increasingly view the Australian dollar as a strategic funding currency.

• Larger task and tenor extension bring Auckland Airport to Australia

  Having issued two benchmark transactions in less than a month, including a debut in the Kangaroo market, Auckland International Airport (Auckland Airport) says a larger capex task will make the issuer a more frequent visitor to global markets. It highlights the extremely favourable pricing outcome it received in both Australian and New Zealand dollars and the positive tenor evolution of the Australian option.

• Markets in the community: Cure Cancer Australia

  KangaNews features the work of Dr Steven Lane, who is the recipient of a Cure Cancer Australia 2017 grant funded by KangaNews and Kapstream Capital. After speaking at the 2017 KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner, Lane talks about his work and the generosity of capital-markets participants on the night.

• New Zealand: hitting the peak?

  New Zealand has enjoyed several years of economic outperformance and fixed-income market development. Speakers at the KangaNews New Zealand Capital Markets Forum, which took place in Wellington in March and was sponsored by ANZ, are keeping a close eye out for signs of economic overheating and continue to seek new assets for the growing pool of local investment funds.

• Seek finds home for unrated debt in Australian institutional market

  A rare fully institutionally targeted unrated transaction in the Australian market demonstrates the increasing willingness of fund managers to engage with transactions without a formal rating, deal sources say. But further flow will likely be constrained by the issuer’s unusual status as an unrated entity with investment-grade metrics.

• Significant oversubscription greets Latitude’s step into the unknown

  Appealing pricing and extensive predeal marketing enabled Latitude Finance Australia (Latitude) to attract a multiple-times oversubscription to all tranches of its debut credit-card asset-backed securities (ABS) issue, according to deal sources. This was despite the combination of a new name, new collateral type and a new deal structure for the Australian market.

• Socialising the bond market

  Australia’s burgeoning green-bond market was supplemented in March by the issue of the country’s first benchmark social bond. Key deal sources discuss the considerations behind the transaction at issuer and market level, and lay out the challenges that may lie in the way of substantial growth.

• Transurban stays the course to keep Westlink debt in Australia

  Solid domestic real-money demand supported the long-dated, dual-tranche deal issued by WSO Finance (WSO), the financing entity of the Westlink Motorway Group and 50 per cent subsidiary of Transurban. The issuer tells KangaNews it had a strong preference to execute in the local market while lead managers note a positive shift in domestic investor sentiment.

• Winner's words: Kangaroo market achievement award

  During this year, KangaNews is speaking to the winners of the individual categories of the KangaNews Awards 2016. Andrea Dore, lead financial officer and head of funding at World Bank, discusses the institutional evolution and personal drive that saw her win the Kangaroo Market Achievement Award.

• Winners' words: Australian domestic and Kangaroo intermediary awards

  Next in the series talking to the individual award winners from the KangaNews Awards 2016, Tom Irving, managing director and head of Asia syndicate at TD Securities, and Brad Scott, director, corporate debt markets origination at National Australia Bank, reveal what it takes to be an award-winning intermediary in an everchanging Australian market.