Online articles

• Actions speak louder than words

  Australia’s requirement for robust sustainable finance measures is now supported by the federal government’s commitment to cut emissions and the global target renewed at COP27. The rules covering deployment of capital, however, are still being written.

• Australian Unity leads by example

  Australian Unity is a unique business in Australia, as a mutual entity with operations in investment management, banking and healthcare. With its community and social values framework as a touchstone, Matthew Moore, head of responsible investment and stewardship at Australian Unity in Sydney, says the company deploys consistent responsible investment principles across its investment decisions.

• Big-four banks the funding constant in an ever-changing world

  Australia’s big-four banks returned to wholesale public issuance in size over the second half of 2021 and into the turbulent market conditions of 2022 – though their actual balance sheet need changed less than some might think, even through the preceding pandemic. At the annual KangaNews-RBC Capital Markets big-four bank funders roundtable, the majors discussed how their issuance strategy is responding to the...

• Corporate Australia should be rewarded for cautious approach and economic resilience

  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...

• EIB gears for change

  European Investment Bank executed the first green use-of-proceeds bond 15 years ago and since then this format, extended to include sustainability bonds, has come to represent close to half of its funding programme. Aldo Romani, head of sustainable finance, and Jorge Grasa, senior funding officer in the finance directorate of EIB in Luxembourg, discuss the year past and the future of the bank’s bond programmes.

• Eyes on Australia once again

  At the end of October 2022, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Global Markets Conference returned to Sydney for the first time since the pandemic. The event presents a unique opportunity for international and local investors to hear about the economies and fixed-income markets of Australia and New Zealand.

• Fonterra eyes all-sustainable debt future following framework publication

  Fonterra Co-operative Group has long been a subject of significant interest in New Zealand sustainable finance, given the company’s scale and the transition challenges facing the agriculture sector as a whole. Following the release of Fonterra’s sustainable finance framework, in mid-October, the company’s Auckland-based director, capital markets, Simon Till, talked to KangaNews about future funding plans.

• Kāinga Ora’s exit leaves a hole in New Zealand debt market

  Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities will no longer access funding in its own name, with the agency instead to be funded directly through the New Zealand government. Local market participants say the move is understandable though the loss of a programmatic agency borrower – with a leadership position in the sustainable finance space – will be a blow.

• KangaNews Awards 2022: institution and deal winners announced

  KangaNews is proud to announce the winners of the institutional and deal categories in the KangaNews Awards 2022. At the end of another hectic year in the Australian and New Zealand capital markets, KangaNews received votes from hundreds of market participants keen to recognise the achievements of 2022's most outstanding performers.

• NZDM lauds green-bond placement as it seeks curve integration

  New Zealand Debt Management and its leads are confident the first-ever New Zealand sovereign green bond achieved the best possible pricing, but are reluctant to assign a specific ‘greenium’ to the trade given the range of factors at play. The issuer intends its first green bond to be part of its nominal curve and will be closely monitoring liquidity in the year before it becomes the on-the-run 10-year New Zealand...

• Pace of delivery

  The Westpac-KangaNews New Zealand Sustainable Finance Summit focused on the need to turn decarbonisation plans into action across the local economy, supported by an energised and evolving domestic capital market. At the end of another busy year, Westpac’s Auckland-based head of sustainable finance, Joanna Silver, discusses progress made so far and goals for 2023.

• Reboot, reset or reconstruction?

  Perhaps the biggest hope to emerge in capital markets over the course of 2022 is that the year represented the dose of medicine the fixed-income asset class in particular needed to re-establish its fundamental value after a protracted but ultimately unsustainable bull run. Whether we are experiencing a return to normal or the beginning of a fundamentally new phase remains to be seen.

• Securitisation industry readies for touchdown with hopes for soft landing

  Participants in the Australasian securitisation industry are realistic about the forthcoming impact of rate rises. But credit fundamentals that have so far surprised on the upside and a functional if challenging funding market give hope that the next phase will be manageable. Meanwhile, upheaval in the UK investor sector could pave the way for an enhanced global bid for Australian product in the medium term.

• The Enchanted Ball 2022

  On Friday 18 November 2022, the Enchanted Ball returned to the Palladium at Crown in Melbourne. Celebrating 20 years, the exclusive black-tie event raises funds for the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (FMFC), which offers grants for life-changing medical research into children’s health. KangaNews is proud to be a diamond sponsor of the event.  pdf Click here (2.06 MB) to see coverage.

• Turning intent into action

  In November 2022, KangaNews and Westpac hosted the New Zealand Sustainable Finance Summit as an in-person event in Auckland, for the first time since 2020. Speakers discussed the pressing need to turn good intentions and high-level thought into action on climate transition.