News
The New Zealand Sustainable Finance Forum (NZSFF)’s final roadmap plots a route for reform which its authors say is necessary for the financial system to be fit for purpose in a sustainable future. The roadmap’s focus is long term and transformative in nature, but it proffers immediate, actionable measures appropriate for the urgency of the task.
When Australia went into lockdown, transport and shipping infrastructure saw an unprecedented business shock. Airport and toll-road passenger numbers collapsed while even freight flows dropped as the global economy ground to a halt. In October, KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank gathered key players in the Australian sector to discuss business impact, balance-sheet resilience and the swift rebound of debt capital markets including the domestic option.
The 2020 iteration of the KangaNews-Moody’s Investors Service Corporate Borrower’s Intentions Survey highlights the response of corporate Australia and New Zealand to COVID-19. The results show treasury teams are anticipating a rocky path out of the crisis and a heightened domestic focus to their funding plans.
As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) used its 3 November statement on monetary policy to unveil a clutch of new measures designed to support Australia’s economic recovery, including a cash-rate ‘micro cut’ and A$100 billion (US$70.5 billion) of additional government-sector bond purchases. At the same time, the statement delivered a relatively positive view on the economic trajectory.
Following its debut in the public securitisation market, Allied Credit says its unique loan-origination structure has facilitated strong growth but justified a more measured approach to public issuance than the accelerated path beaten by some other new asset-backed securities (ABS) issuers.
The Australian market saw the pricing of a pair of green-labelled, consumer-finance asset-backed securities (ABS) on the same day – 22 October – in the middle of the local securitisation market’s busiest week of the COVID-19 era. Deal sources say the execution process allowed the deals to come in the hectic week, and that the green element was additive to demand.
New Zealand Debt Management (NZDM) printed its fifth syndicated deal since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic on 28 October. The agency says it is settling into an issuance rhythm with record demand for bonds despite negative short-end rates.
On 22 October, KangaNews hosted the latest in the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2020 webinar series. The session had a rates-market flavour, including a discussion between some of Australia’s leading market participants about how massively increased sovereign issuance, central-bank intervention and a raft of new dynamics will shape their sector.
The launch by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) of a new five-year Australian Commonwealth government bond (ACGB) futures contract is well timed to meet the needs of an evolving market and should therefore attract liquidity from listing, market participants believe.
Asian Development Bank printed the year’s first mid-curve benchmark new issue from a supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) borrower in Australian dollars, on 27 October. The issuer says expectations of monetary policy easing have returned pricing to attractive levels.
The latest in the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2020 webinar series included an outlook on the Australian economy and bond market approaching the end of a tumultuous year. Discussion focused on the scale of fiscal support still required, how central-bank stimulus will be deployed and the outlook for key indicators including the housing market.
Lendlease Group printed its debut green bond on 20 October to become the first nonfinancial corporate credit to print labelled green, social and sustainability (GSS) product in Australia this year. The issuer tells KangaNews its financing strategy now aligns with the business’s strong green credentials.