Primetime for Bluestone
Bluestone Group printed its debut prime residential mortgage-backed securities deal on 21 July in a deal supported by the lender’s recent partnership with Athena. Having built market presence with its nonconforming product, Bluestone now expects the majority of its issuance to be in the prime category, while it is also teasing an imminent New Zealand dollar debut.
BNPL asset class flies high with Zip triple-A upgrade
Australia’s buy-now, pay-later securitisation sector received a significant stamp of approval in July as Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the top tranches of all three of Zip Co’s outstanding transactions to Aaa. The rating agency had previously withheld the top mark based on the relative infancy of Zip and the BNPL asset class, and the issuer now says it hopes to see a cost-of-funds benefit from the development.
New Zealand's buy side speaks out
In May, BNZ and KangaNews carried out an unprecedented survey of New Zealand’s institutional fixed-income investors as the first step in a bank project to identify and progress challenges and opportunities facing the local market. Having digested the results of the survey, BNZ also hosted a panel of investors to discuss its results in more detail.
Investors embrace SAFA transaction even at 15-year tenor
By adding a 15-year point on its curve, South Australian Government Financing Authority’s latest syndicated deal suggests continued investor appetite for longer-dated issuance.
Back on track in the New Zealand high-grade market
At the start of June, KangaNews and Westpac brought together New Zealand’s biggest government-sector issuers in Wellington to discuss the path of their market from the depths of the crisis back to functionality, the new challenges of 2021 and the outlook for a raft of factors – including sustainable-finance evolution, inflation-linked issuance and the long-dated market.
Read more: Back on track in the New Zealand high-grade market