BNP Paribas and KangaNews convened their longstanding roundtable for corporate issuers in Sydney in July. Participants share a detailed view of a global market in which liquidity continues to outstrip credit supply by a significant margin – and where issuers hold the whip hand as a consequence. There are still challenges for responsible issuers, however.

In late January, KangaNews hosted – with MUFG – its annual roundtable discussion with US private placement (USPP) investors and Australian issuers in Miami. Investors remain positive about credits from the Australasian region and see no reason for the record supply pipeline from Australian and New Zealand issuers in the last two years to decrease. In fact, the buy side points to its flexibility to structure deals to attract more issuance from the Antipodes. Issuers, meanwhile, emphasise the positive experiences they have had in issuing USPPs.

Australian-origin nonfinancial corporate offshore public issuance got underway for 2018 as Pacific National debuted in US dollar Reg S format on 15 March. In the wake of the transaction, the issuer tells KangaNews that a groundswell of support from local intermediaries for the Reg S option drove market selection.

The sixth annual corporate borrowers roundtable discussion hosted by BNP Paribas and KangaNews took place in December 2017, at the end of an interesting year for bond issuance by corporate Australia. Key corporate players discuss quantitative tapering (QT), regulation and what 2018 might bring.

On 20 July, KangaNews and National Australia Bank hosted their second annual Fixed Income Beyond the Institutional Sector Summit in Sydney. With more than 500 delegates in attendance the event went to a new level in 2017, as speakers shared views on how noninstitutional investors will engage with the fixed-income asset class in a rapidly changing world.

Australian corporates give insights into the changing shape of their bank groups in the last few years.

On 7 April, Asciano (BBB-/Baa3), on behalf of Pacific National, revealed plans to meet fixed-income investors in Australia and Asia commencing on 11 April. The meetings’ arrangers – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Mizuho and National Australia Bank – say an Australian dollar-denominated capital-markets transaction may follow.