After a year of limited capital market issuance – domestically and offshore – there might be grounds for pessimism in the Australian corporate debt market. But a group of analysts, issuers and investors who gathered at a discussion hosted by Fitch Ratings and KangaNews in November 2022 say Australian credits are relatively well positioned as and when confidence returns to the market, despite the obvious challenges of the past year.

An increasing number of studies link gender diversity with sustainability ambition. In October 2022, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute and KangaNews hosted senior industry leaders to examine this relationship.

The KangaNews Debt Capital Market Summit returned to Sydney as an in-person conference in May. Discussions covered a range of topics including rising inflation, central bank policy and trading in a highly volatile market. The increasing interest in environmental, social and governance issues was another talking point.

Transition to a more sustainable economy is increasingly driving investment and business decisions. While climate has been a key focus, market participants are now moving to add natural capital to their calculations and pressing ahead with more socially focused projects, according to speakers at the KangaNews Sustainable Debt Summit, which took place in Sydney in late May.

The Australian corporate credit market has shown resilience in 2022 despite heightened uncertainty and volatility. Inflation, rising rates and geopolitical risk – a potent mix that might once have led to Australian credit seizing up – have not stopped primary issuance. Participants at a Commonwealth Bank of Australia-KangaNews roundtable in April discuss the maturing Australian credit market’s pricing and deal execution value proposition.

Not long ago, the Australian corporate credit market was struggling to shake off the perception of being the first to close and the last to reopen. While corporate deal flow has been limited in 2022, investors and intermediaries say there has not been a full-scale retreat of liquidity – which represents a step-change in market maturity.

COVID-19 has profoundly affected how people work, especially in largely urban, professional industries like capital markets. As part of the 2021 Australian Securitisation Forum virtual conference, leaders with a range of perspectives shared their views on whether the shift to wide-scale home working will persist in the long term, how it affects equity across the workforce – particularly through a gender lens – and the value of face-to-face working.

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.