Melbourne Airport says its return to the euro market priced at a level competitive with recent comparable domestic trends while allowing the issuer to print its largest-ever capital market volume. The Australian-origin corporate pipeline is building in Europe and leads say it continues to be an important option for many issuers even as the domestic market impresses with a series of record orderbooks.

The Australian dollar market has been hot at the start of 2024 but, as the H1 corporate issuance window opens, so are core global markets. Intermediaries say the euro and US dollar markets are both offering highly conducive conditions, providing Australian issuers no shortage of reasons to jet abroad sooner rather than later.

While Australia’s major banks have focused primarily – if not exclusively – on their domestic market for funding at the start of 2024, National Australia Bank demonstrated global appetite for these credits with a euro covered-bond return on 29 January. The €1.25 billion seven-year deal achieved record demand and price tightening for an Australian bank in this format, deal sources say, and reflects emerging appetite for longer duration in the region.

KangaNews is proud to announce the winners of the institutional and deal categories in the KangaNews Awards 2023. At the end of another busy year in the Australian and New Zealand capital markets, KangaNews received votes from hundreds of market participants keen to recognise the achievements of 2023's most outstanding performers.

The Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles announced revisions on 22 June after its annual general meeting. The two top deliveries for 2023 are an update to the Climate Transition Finance Handbook and modifications to the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles to integrate sovereign issuers.

Bank of New Zealand returned to the euro covered bond market for the first time in a year on 20 June, printing a €750 million (US$824.4 million) 5.5-year covered bond. Deal sources laud the transaction’s outcome, despite competing supply and a busy issuance window, largely helped by the measured execution process undertaken by issuer and leads.