News
The Australian Office of Financial Management’s latest transaction attracted a healthy orderbook despite printing in an increasingly volatile market. The agency says it took a strategic approach to execution, waiting out the recent federal budget and printing between central bank announcements.
South32 issued its inaugural public bond in the US dollar 144A market amid choppy conditions and in a tight execution window. The issuer says its debut lays the groundwork for future US dollar transactions.
Australian companies will likely not be able to avoid global climate reporting standards as offshore organisations ramp up disclosure requirements – whether or not there is a mandatory scheme domestically. Market participants say the international mood is changing and Australian companies and investors will have to shift with it.
As the Reserve Bank of New Zealand demands local banks increase their resilience through enhanced capital requirements, mutual banks face a familiar challenge: how to access additional capital without putting their mutual status under threat. The central bank is consulting on two potential capital instrument options for the mutual bank sector – but may not introduce either.
Export-Import Bank of Korea returned to the Australian dollar market for the first time since 2020 to print a dual-tranche deal with a multiday execution process that drew support from Asian commercial banks and investors further afield. The transaction’s dual-tranche structure also attracted legacy Kexim investors, according to deal sources.
Spark Finance elected to include a single sustainability performance target with a twofold measurement approach in its latest deal, New Zealand’s first sustainability-linked bond. Issuer and lead manager say the deal, which is linked to a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction target, received strong support from institutional investors.
Robust investor engagement supported AusNet Services’ first deal since the electricity and gas distributor’s acquisition last year by a Brookfield Asset Management-led consortium. The transaction was one of Australia’s first true corporate deals of 2022 and is a clear sign markets are calming, according to deal sources.
Strong growth in mortgage originations led Pepper Money to print its latest residential mortgage-backed securities just two weeks after its previous deal. Both are Australian dollar-only transactions, but the issuer is targeting a return to offshore currencies – particularly US dollars – later in the year.
Endeavour Energy says its newly signed sustainability-linked loan is the first from an electricity distribution network service provider in Australia. The borrower tells KangaNews line-loss related emissions were the most challenging hurdle to overcome as it sought maximum impact from the facility.
Bluestone Mortgages says it received strong support for the first New Zealand dollar residential mortgage-backed securities deal of the year, having printed its inaugural trade a few months prior in December 2021. Deal sources say they are confident further opportunities will present themselves in the local securitisation market.
Auckland Council wants to shift all its bank debt into sustainability-linked loan format, following its conversion of an existing standby facility and execution of a sustainability-linked interest rate swap. The council says the transactions represent the latest steps linking funding to its sustainability goals.
University of Tasmania executed 2022’s first Australian dollar corporate green bond with the support of Asian investors – particularly one Japanese life insurance company – anchoring the outcome in a challenging market. Demand for the use of proceeds format also facilitated a volume upsize, deal sources reveal.