Online articles

• A European flavour to burgeoning private credit sector

  The emergence of private credit as an asset class in Australia began in the ultra-low rates environment ahead of and during the pandemic, but has only grown as overall interest in fixed income has grown in more recent times. The domestic market is still maturing and the focus of global interest is typically the US, but there are also private credit opportunities in Europe.

• Asian demand for Australian credit likely to remain high

  The Asian bid has been a major talking point in the Australian credit market in early 2024 and, while technical factors have provided a strong tailwind, market participants believe the outlook is positive for the medium term at least. Finding ongoing sources of bank and corporate supply may be a bigger concern.

• Confidence grows on baseline reliability of Australian corporate market

  A few months into 2024, there can be no doubt that the Australian dollar market is demonstrating an all-time best level of demand for corporate transactions, including investor diversity and appetite for extended tenor. Discussion at the KangaNews Debt Capital Market Summit, which took place in Sydney on 18 March, turned to the prospects for this level of support to remain available consistently in future.

• External support still the talking point in bank ratings review

  The nature and likelihood of pre-failure external support for banks has been brought back into focus following an update to the methodology Moody’s Ratings uses to assess the Australian banking sector. Some banks do not believe the new analysis gives sufficient weight to the likelihood of external support before the point of failure – even for entities not deemed systemically important.

• Foundations for the future

  The KangaNews Debt Capital Market Summit 2024 took place in Sydney on 18 March amid an unprecedented bonanza of new issuance and at what could prove to be an inflection point for the local market. The agenda covered a raft of topics centred on the theme of taking advantage of recent growth to deliver a market that is match fit for the demands that will be placed on it, with discussions ranging from the impact of...

• Hits and misses for smaller SSA Kangaroos

  The supranational, sovereign and agency Kangaroo market enjoyed a record start to the year for new issuance, including flow from smaller issuers. Despite ongoing structural challenges for smaller issuers in the sector, there have also been encouraging signs of issuance diversity – including opportunities to print benchmark-sized transactions.

• INFINZ Young Women in Finance 2024

  The Young Women in Finance (YWF) group comes under the umbrella of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand (INFINZ), an individual member-based industry body for professionals in finance roles and those working in New Zealand’s financial-sector ecosystem.

• KangaNews Awards 2023: Market People of the Year

  KangaNews has announced its Market People of the Year 2023, at the KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner in Sydney on 19 March. These are the individuals who voters in the KangaNews Awards 2023 believe went above and beyond to contribute to the development of the Australian and New Zealand debt markets. There are no restrictions on the firms, role or seniority of winners – voters were simply asked to consider who...

• KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner 2024

  The leading social event for the fixed income market in Australasia, the KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner, returned to the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on 19 March. The dinner celebrated the achievements of the winners of the KangaNews Awards 2023, including the announcement of the KangaNews Market People of the Year 2023.

• Nestlé’s leads hope it could be the lure for more Kangaroo corporates

  Deal sources say Nestlé’s jumbo debut Kangaroo transaction is a further show of confidence for the Australian dollar market. They hope it could spur other international corporate names to consider Australian dollar funding after a three-year drought since the last Kangaroo corporate issuance of similar size.

• New ORDE: reflections on a record breaker

  ORDE Financial made its debut in the benchmark residential mortgage-backed securities market on 22 February, printing volume – A$1 billion in total – that KangaNews believes to be the most ever by a debutant nonbank issuer. The issuer shares perspectives on funding and execution strategy, a healthy domestic securitisation market and plans to grow its investor base further in future.

• New Zealand looks for the silver lining despite economic headwinds

  Speakers at the ANZ-KangaNews New Zealand Capital Market Forum, which took place in Auckland on 21 March, believe the local market continues to offer opportunities despite the obvious challenges of an economy in recession. The everincreasing urgency of the energy transition, a significant infrastructure shortfall and the role of the fixed income market took centre stage in discussions.

• New Zealand's market ready to step up as degree of difficulty grows

  With a substantial infrastructure requirement looming and a weak economic environment, the New Zealand capital market will have to be on top of its game in the years ahead. Participants at KangaNews’s annual women in New Zealand capital markets roundtable discussed the issues at hand and how they believe a constructive ecosystem can be developed.

• Pricing and execution insight from structuring diverse quote data

  In March, Eugene Grinberg, New York-based co-founder and chief executive of SOLVE, visited Australia around his firm’s sponsorship of the KangaNews Debt Capital Market Summit in March. Grinberg talked to KangaNews about how SOLVE’s offering is helping investors and dealers make sense of the deluge of pricing signals they receive and send to help promote price transparency even in some of global fixed income’s most...

• Retail market continues to provide the baseline for New Zealand corporate issuance

  A run of supply in March reveals a robust demand picture for rated and unrated corporate credits in New Zealand’s retail bond market – despite the rise of appealing issuance options elsewhere. The market has remained consistent through various stages of the rates cycle and users say there is little reason to anticipate a change.

• Rising tide in Australia’s corporate market

  The Australian dollar corporate bond market has flattered to deceive in the past but in 2024 appears finally to be delivering on its potential, with record volume issued and some particularly eye-catching transactions in the books. Perhaps more significantly, the market appears to be winning over some issuers that were historically unwilling to test its capacity for large-volume, long-dated transactions.

• SAFA reflects on 100 per cent sustainable debt plans in wake of debut issuance

  South Australian Government Financing Authority has been working on plans to map its whole debt book – and thus pave the way for a fully sustainability-labelled issuance programme – for a matter of years. In the wake of its debut labelled transaction, Peter King, head of financial markets and client services at the state issuer, talks to KangaNews about the reception and the importance of a programme that is unique...

• USPP forced to fight for its share but dealers back its relative appeal

  The first few months of 2024 demonstrated there is ample appetite for high-quality corporate credit across global markets – including in Australian dollars, where new issuance has reached a record level. Market sources say US private placement investors are as keen as ever to access Australian-origin issuers. The question is whether those issuers will be willing to look beyond the domestic value proposition.