The positive tone in the Australian dollar market continued for Brisbane Airport’s latest transaction, having convinced the borrower to pick the domestic issuance option and advance its execution plans. The issuer was rewarded with a substantial oversubscription that allowed it to tighten the deal margin significantly.

The size and breadth of demand for Telstra’s latest deal stands out – especially the scale of bids for 10-year corporate bonds. But deal sources say buy-side interest in corporate transactions is wider than it was a year ago and should support supply from a range of issuers.

The KangaNews-Westpac Corporate Debt Summit debuted in 2011, with a relatively small audience and a market that could not yet take consistent supply of corporate bonds for granted. In the decade since, the event and the market have grown and diversified. By 2019 – the last year before COVID-19 put the in-person event on hiatus – registrations had more than trebled, to nearly 600, and the event’s agenda covered not just corporate debt but a raft of issues relevant to the economic and business environment.

When Australia went into lockdown, transport and shipping infrastructure saw an unprecedented business shock. Airport and toll-road passenger numbers collapsed while even freight flows dropped as the global economy ground to a halt. In October, KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank gathered key players in the Australian sector to discuss business impact, balance-sheet resilience and the swift rebound of debt capital markets including the domestic option.

The economy-wide impact of COVID-19 has affected Australian corporate borrowers in a host of ways. But access to funds has generally remained in place as issuers navigate a path back to some type of normality – even for those in the most affected sectors.

Airports around the world have gone quiet as result of COVID-19, bringing corporate liquidity to the fore. Brisbane Airport Corporation was able to re-engage the Australian domestic market in late June for a deal it was looking to execute prior to the crisis. The airport’s head of corporate finance, Warren Briggs, speaks with KangaNews about the deal process and crisis management.