Melbourne Airport
Eye of the storm
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.
Melbourne Airport takes the long-haul option and maxes volume in euro print
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.
Trans Europe issuance express for corporate Australia
Tight new-issue concessions, ample liquidity, the availability of tenor and favourable cross-currency economics are among the drivers sending a host of Australian corporate names on a funding expedition to Europe in recent weeks, deal sources say. Three such deals priced and another two circling since mid-April have been the subject of comment in the European market and demonstrate the clear advantage euro issuance offers in the H1 corporate funding window.
Australian credit market adapts to latest turn of the cyclical wheel
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.
A decade of development
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.
Melbourne Airport leans into Australian dollars
Melbourne Airport turned to the domestic market to execute its latest transaction in part to avoid offshore investor concern about Australia’s strict border rules. The A$700 million 10-year deal priced on 17 November, becoming the issuer’s first domestic transaction since 2016.
