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Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) used its August 10 annual results announcement to trumpet its leading capital position among the Australian big four banks. The bulk of its year-on-year common equity tier-one (CET1) growth came from a major equity raising in the first half, and the overall climb to 10.6 per cent CET1 has come with a significant cost in return on equity (ROE), though.

Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac)'s decision to issue the first Kauri Basel-III compliant bank tier-two transaction was driven by a desire for further diversification of tier-two product, the issuer tells KangaNews. The fact that the transaction was issued out of the Australian head office provided a point of difference to recent Basel-III compliant tier-two trades in New Zealand as well as an additional layer of comfort – and was a key attraction for investors, lead managers add.

The issuer of the latest Australian-origin high-yield bond transaction in the US dollar market highlights a developing Australian bid as a notable element of its return to issuance. TFS Corporation (TFS) says it hopes the complementary local bid may signal the potential for a domestic high-yield option to emerge, but it also notes the ongoing dominance and supportive nature of US-based investors.

The first Australian semi-government issuer to bring a green bond to market says the genesis of its transaction lay in investor demand for the product. Treasury Corporation of Victoria (TCV) has a significant stock of certified green assets and is willing to return to the green-bond market – despite its relatively small term-funding programme and commitment to supporting benchmark liquidity.

Following the first real test of Australian-origin credit appeal locally and offshore since the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) on June 23, bank treasury representatives say they see little or no Brexit-induced effect on funding markets. International investors remain comfortable with Australian credit, they add.

Australia's major banks are the latest issuers to suffer collateral damage from S&P Global Ratings (S&P)'s decision to revise its outlook on the Australian sovereign's triple-A rating to negative. S&P placed negative outlooks on the big four's AA- ratings on July 7, following similar outlook changes for the sovereign and a raft of semi-government and government-sector borrowers.

The surprise referendum result in the UK has left market participants scrambling to gauge the likely impact on global markets – including in Australasia. Most seem to view Brexit as a "shock not a crisis", assuming isolationist contagion does not spread throughout the Eurozone and beyond.

A research report published by National Australia Bank (NAB)'s global markets credit research team on June 16 estimates that, in aggregate, the big-four Australian banks may need to raise more than A$120 billion (US$88.7 billion) of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) by the regime's implementation date. However, even factoring in two key expected forthcoming regulatory changes to the estimate, the report suggests that the task – while substantial – should be manageable for the majors.

KangaNews is pleased to present the results of its 2016 Fixed-Income Research Poll. This is the only independent, specialist poll of fixed-income investors' views on relevant research in the Australian market. This year marks the sixth consecutive year the poll has been running, and the 2016 response – more than 70 legitimate votes were received from qualifying institutional investors – was a record. 

The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) credits the support it received from local and regional Australian dollar investors for the pricing and volume success of its debut Kangaroo transaction. The issuer printed A$1 billion (US$722.6 million) on June 1, across four- and eight-year maturity tranches.

The latest Kangaroo corporate deal to price demonstrates the growing faith global issuers have in the Australian dollar market even in the near absence of domestic supply, its leads claim. Meanwhile, investors say the A$1 billion deal printed by the Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) on June 1 offered fair value. They also hail the emergence of Kangaroo deal flow to fill the domestic corporate gap.

Lack of deal flow, new protocols around pre-deal disclosure, single-name exposure limits and execution risk: all factors that Australia's latest corporate issuer and its lead managers insist are categorically not barriers to large, cost-effective domestic deals. Port of Brisbane printed A$250 million (US$179.3 million) of new seven-year paper with an oversubscription of more than two times.