News
Commonwealth Bank of Australia says it was pleasantly surprised by the reception it received for its jumbo three- and five-year print. The deal opened the Australian domestic credit market for 2023 with the largest volume ever seen in a local transaction.
The World Bank priced its latest Kangaroo Sustainable Development Bond inside its US dollar curve – a rare occurrence, the issuer says – thanks to attractive cross-currency swap dynamics. The issuer says offshore investors also appreciated the higher yield of Australian dollars compared with similar US dollar transactions.
Impact Investment Exchange (IIX)’s most recent issue, a US$50 million orange bond, is a first for the global debt capital markets. IIX and ANZ – a lead on the transaction – hope the new label will help spearhead intentional and robust investment with a gender lens.
New Zealand’s corporates will need to explain how their emissions targets contribute toward a 1.5-degree future climate scenario, according to the External Reporting Board’s recently published final mandatory reporting standards. Market participants say the changes make the reporting regime more forward looking and potentially more challenging, particularly for smaller companies.
UDC Finance benefited from a significant influx of new investors into its most recent asset-backed securities transaction – the issuer’s second public deal. While most buyers were domestic, the issuer also welcomed one new Japanese account to its book.
In 2020, for the first edition of its Women in Capital Markets Yearbook, KangaNews surveyed female industry participants to gauge their views on gender equity. Returning to a similar set of questions two years later, it appears the changes to working practice accelerated by the pandemic have had little or no impact on diversity. Women are still hopeful of improvement over time, however.
The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute says there should be no delay in the deployment of its taxonomy in the development and labelling of green financial products once the final document is published. The recommendation forms part of the institute’s latest taxonomy working paper and follows the federal government’s recent push to accelerate the adoption of sustainable finance.
The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute says there should be no delay in the deployment of its taxonomy in the development and labelling of green financial products once the final document is published. The recommendation forms part of the institute’s latest taxonomy working paper and follows the federal government’s recent push to accelerate the adoption of sustainable finance.
After an annus horribilis for bond investment in 2022, investors believe the new year should hold better tidings. A change in central bank tone bodes well for fixed-income performance, while fund managers are increasingly confident that 2022’s asset pricing reset was sufficient to restore fixed income’s defensive characteristics after many years of distortion caused by low rates and QE.
The forced sale of a substantial volume of Australian securitisation assets as a sector of UK investors scrambled to raise liquidity after the country’s catastrophic mini-budget could increase demand in the longer term. European market participants speaking at the Australian Securitisation Forum’s 2022 conference say the sell-off demonstrated liquidity many global investors did not believe the Australian asset class possessed and new buyers are emerging as a result.
Participants in the Australasian securitisation industry are realistic about the forthcoming impact of rate rises, in full knowledge that their impact is unlikely to feed through in full until the new year. 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.
National Australia Bank’s latest domestic print illustrates the scale of ongoing demand for senior bank debt among local investors, the issuer says. The deal was Australia’s equal largest credit transaction of all time, matching an October print by ANZ Banking Group. With plenty of liquidity on offer the close timing aided price discovery.