New Zealand is emerging from recession though its recovery to date is patchy by sector and geography. Speakers at the annual ANZ-KangaNews New Zealand Capital Market Forum, which took place in Auckland on 27 March, say attracting a greater volume of international investment – in sectors including the bond market and infrastructure development – will be key to catalysing growth.

The KangaNews-Westpac New Zealand Sustainable Finance Summit, which took place in Auckland in November 2024, featured the event’s most ambitious and wide-reaching agenda. Speakers discussed the urgent need to act on climate, nature and social challenges, how to do so while navigating the increasingly complex world of regulation and disclosure, and why it is critical to maintain the highest possible ambition.

KangaNews is proud to announce the winners of the institutional and deal categories in the KangaNews Awards 2024. At the end of a banner year in the Australian and New Zealand capital markets, KangaNews received votes from hundreds of market participants keen to recognise the achievements of 2024's most outstanding performers.

KangaNews and UBS brought together some of the world’s leading female funding executives at supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) issuers to talk about where a growing Australian dollar market fits into their funding mix, and issuer-level initiatives on diversity, equity and inclusion.

In June, KangaNews and Westpac gathered issuers from across the New Zealand high-grade landscape in Wellington to discuss domestic market conditions and global demand. While near-term attention remains focused on monetary policy, there is an underlying sense that supply patterns are fundamentally changing the shape of the New Zealand dollar market.

Thinking in global markets is turning hard to the nature of the looming inflection point for monetary policy. Central banks may not cut, or at least not far, unless the pain being felt in global economies metastasises into unemployment and other symptoms of spare capacity. Despite this uncertainty – and many others – issuers were able to make hay in H1, including in an Australian market that has experienced unprecedented scale and consistency of demand. Participants at the annual ANZ-KangaNews global funding roundtable, which took place in London in June, surveyed the landscape.

Transition and sustainability-linked bonds have offered early potential to support the aspects of economic transition with the greatest degree of additionality and impact. But issuance has slowed after a promising start, in particular due to enhanced scrutiny of transaction structures’ ambition. Market leaders gathered in Amsterdam in June to path a road forward.

Monetary, market and geopolitical conditions continue to shift at a heightened pace. But global supranational, sovereign and agency issuers say their approach to debt issuance and other positive factors – including conducive conditions for Australian dollar supply – allow them to stay ahead of the curve.

The long-awaited reform of New Zealand’s water infrastructure is making significant progress in 2024. While the financing format and thus impact on capital markets supply will still take up to two years to emerge in full, market users familiar with the sector say there could be a significant sustainable finance opportunity – including for the issuance of so-called “blue bonds”.