News
The lingering impact of fiscal stimulus continued to support a structurally altered Australasian debt market in 2021, transaction data from the KangaNews deal database show. Corporate and securitisation issuance capitalised on the absence of major-bank supply, while sustainability-aligned deal flow reached new heights.
European Investment Bank kicked off the 2022 Kangaroo market Wednesday, pricing the largest-ever Australian dollar green, social and sustainability bond from a supranational, sovereign and agency borrower. The issuer says pricing was attractive versus its core-currency markets as it seeks greater investor diversification through its green- and sustainability-funding programmes.
KangaNews and RBC Capital Markets hosted their annual Australian bank funding roundtable in November 2021 at an important juncture for the sector. The pandemic – or, more accurately, the government and central-bank response to the pandemic – had a profound impact on Australian major-bank funding.
Treasury Wine Estates is aiming for gender equality in senior leadership roles and 42 per cent female representation across its business by 2025. The company included these goals in the KPIs for its first sustainability-linked loan, which completed last week – in the process becoming the first Asia-Pacific winemaker to borrow in this format.
Metlifecare has refinanced and expanded its bank debt with the completion of a record-breaking NZ$1.25 billion (US$842.6 million) sustainability-linked loan. The company says this is an important step in its new growth strategy following its acquisition by Swedish investment firm EQT Partners in 2020.
First Sentier Investors has structured an A$750 million cash advance facility including a green tranche credit facility aimed at fund level financing - which the firm says is a first for the Australian market. The multilateral revolving credit line will be used in the firm’s Global Diversified Infrastructure Fund as short-term bridging finance between acquisitions and drawdown from the fund’s investors.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s final guidance on a principles-based approach to ensuring financial institutions appropriately manage climate-related financial risk comes as a growing cohort of nations signal intentions to introduce mandatory regimes. Some observers compliment the Australian approach while others fear it could exacerbate jurisdictional divergence.
The KangaNews-Westpac Corporate Debt Summit debuted in 2011, with a relatively small audience and a market that could not yet take consistent supply of corporate bonds for granted. In the decade since, the event and the market have grown and diversified. By 2019 – the last year before COVID-19 put the in-person event on hiatus – registrations had more than trebled, to nearly 600, and the event’s agenda covered not just corporate debt but a raft of issues relevant to the economic and business environment.
KangaNews is proud to announce the winners of the institutional and deal categories in the KangaNews Awards 2021. At the end of another hectic year in the Australian and New Zealand capital markets, KangaNews received votes from hundreds of market participants keen to recognise the achievements of 2021's most outstanding performers.
Ampol’s recent hybrid transaction has fuelled expectations of further subordinated-debt issuance. While a handful of corporate-hybrid transactions have been issued since September 2020, deal sources say the latest transaction could be a promising sign of a more stable market.
Thinktank Group will target mid-year execution for its next commercial mortgage-backed securities deal, reshaping its issuance programme to make way for further residential mortgage-backed deals. The change will also provide greater flexibility to judge market conditions, according to the borrower.
World Bank’s successful placement of a record-sized Kauri transaction – in sustainability-development format – is a positive sign for market evolution, according to deal sources. The NZ$1.5 billion deal, upsized from its initial NZ$300 million, printed despite a challenging rates environment.