Online articles

• 2020 challenges returned with interest

  Toward the end of a tumultuous year, leaders of ANZ’s institutional business across a raft of sectors gathered at a KangaNews roundtable to discuss the impact of COVID-19, how they supported customers during this unprecedented period, how business has changed and the bank’s role in resetting investment and growth on a more positive trajectory.

• As safe as bricks and mortar

  In the second of two roundtables exploring corporate sectors on the front line of the COVID-19 crisis, in November 2020 KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank hosted issuers and analysts from the Australian REIT sector to talk about pandemic fallout. The conversation covered crisis response and the new shape of the sector in future, including the likely impact on individual property categories.

• ASFI plots Australia’s path to zero emissions

  The Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative roadmap, published on 24 November, puts forward a plan to align the Australian economy and financial system with outcomes that encourage sustainability, resilience and future prosperity. It sets ambitious targets, including some that stretch beyond federal government goals, and lays out a timeline for achieving them.

• Australasian retail REITs: pandemic leaves lasting pain

  The fallout from COVID-19 will linger beyond lockdowns for rated retail REITs, according to S&P Global Ratings senior director, corporate ratings, Craig Parker, and associate, corporate ratings, Rhys Corry. In Australasia, COVID-19 containment measures are eroding retail REIT earnings and reducing asset value amid unprecedented structural disruption.

• Australian corporate credit on the rebound

  Investment-grade corporate Australia has weathered the COVID-19 crisis better than could have been expected as the pandemic accelerated in March and April 2020, according to participants at a Fitch Ratings-KangaNews roundtable at the end of the year. A supportive local debt market was just one of the factors behind this resilience.

• Exposure cost

  As environmental, social and governance issues become ever-more integrated with the credit investment process in Australia, the issue of pricing consequences for strong and weak performers is more relevant than ever. This is no longer just a question for direct emitters but also for companies with business models adjacent to emissions-intensive industries.

• Issuer-level strategy the focus for climate transition

  The Green Bond Principles and Social Bond Principles (GBP SBP), administered by the International Capital Market Association, launched its Climate Transition Finance Handbook on 9 December. The handbook marks a new phase in the evolution of the sustainable finance market according to market participants involved in its development.

• KangaNews Awards 2020: Market People of the Year

  The KangaNews Market People of the Year are the individuals who voters in the KangaNews Awards 2020 believe went above and beyond their roles to contribute to the development of the Australian and New Zealand debt markets. There are no restrictions on the firms, positions or seniority of winners – voters are simply asked to consider who contributed most to the market in either or both 2020 specifically or...

• KangaNews DCM Summit bank treasurers webinar

  One of the most popular annual sessions at the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit is the big-four bank treasurers panel. There was no shortage of discussion topics at the 2020 videoconference iteration, even though the majors have had minimal wholesale issuance to do and there is little chance of a 2021 rebound.

• KangaNews DCM Summit capital issuance webinar

  Australia’s credit market has seen a pickup in supply of capital instruments, including a clutch of corporate hybrid transactions. The KangaNews Debt Capial Markets Summit 2020 webinar series included a session on additional capital, which focused on supply dynamics, demand drivers and the ever-present tension between retail, wholesale and true institutional participation.

• KangaNews DCM Summit duration webinar

  The development of long-dated liquidity is a massive agenda item for the Australian debt market, as sovereign issuance soars and yield at the front end stays anchored. Local and global market participants shared views on how duration has evolved internationally and what might be in store for Australia, at a November KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2020 webinar.

• Leading from the front

  European Investment Bank is one of the EU’s primary vehicles for achieving its sustainability goals and is therefore at the vanguard of European and global sustainable debt markets. The supranational tells KangaNews it aims to use this position to provide a blueprint for itself and others to implement ambitious sustainable-finance strategies.

• Means of support

  There can be no doubt that swift and decisive policymaker action saved markets and economies a lot of pain in 2020. Moving into a new and hopefully less dispiriting year, a big question is whether the best means of cultivating a fragile recovery is really to continue trying to force credit indiscriminately down the throats of business and household sectors that are certainly not crying out for it.

• More support in reserve

  The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) used their respective November monetary-policy decisions to roll out a raft of additional support measures for economies in the earliest stages of recovery. There are reasons for optimism – including a receding prospect of negative rates in New Zealand.

• NZSFF roadmap emphasises transformation, simplicity and urgency

  The New Zealand Sustainable Finance Forum (NZSFF)’s final roadmap plots a route for reform which its authors say is necessary for the financial system to be fit for purpose in a sustainable future. The roadmap’s focus is long term and transformative in nature, but it proffers immediate, actionable measures appropriate for the urgency of the task.

• Reflect and reposition

  After hopefully overcoming the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian securitisation industry is taking stock of a period of resilience and a reshaped competitive landscape. Top of mind for market participants are the way crisis response has changed the cost of funding unevenly for different issuer types and mooted changes to responsible-lending rules.

• US market participants take stock as the election dust settles

  On 12 November, just a week after perhaps the most contentious and controversial election in US history, KangaNews convened a panel of US-based market participants to discuss the fallout as part of the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2020 webinar series. The conversation covered the impact of a divided government, monetary and fiscal policy, and the US’s place on the world stage.

• What the buy side wants in ESG

  As the sustainable debt market evolves at a quickening pace, the most important factor for issuers to keep abreast of is what investors want from them – what is considered best practice on a transaction basis and as ongoing environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. In December, KangaNews polled Australasian investors to ascertain their up-to-the-minute thinking.