News
Stockland’s latest transaction in the domestic market was anchored by a jumbo cornerstone bid that accounted for more than half the deal. Even so, more than 50 investors supported the issuer’s decision to offer a 10-year transaction – a duration not achieved by a property-sector issuer in Australian dollars since 2021.
Demand for Australian dollar securitisation in early 2024 allowed Athena to print its largest-ever volume in its return to residential mortgage-backed securities issuance. Athena says the origination environment is “still very competitive” but it remains comfortable in its own book growth: it expects to hit a target settlement volume of A$2.5 billion this year, facilitating this scale of capital markets issuance.
In pursuit of maintaining its domestic bond curve, Aurizon Network returned to the Australian dollar market for the first time in four years. The issuer reveals that the deal enjoyed abundant demand – which it ascribes to emerging understanding of nuance in sustainability as well as the ongoing positive backdrop for credit supply.
KangaNews data for calendar year 2023 confirm that a raft of sectors in the Australian dollar market experienced record new-issuance volume last year. The financial institution space in particular also delivered a notable uptick in issuance diversity, across unsecured and securitised deal formats. Meanwhile, issuance in New Zealand was consistent year-on-year.
Long-anticipated mandatory climate reporting for corporate Australia took a step closer to reality in January as the Australian government published its draft legislation for the forthcoming regime. Industry experts speak to KangaNews about what it means for businesses – and who will be ready for the task.
Melbourne Airport says its return to the euro market priced at a level competitive with recent comparable domestic trends while allowing the issuer to print its largest-ever capital market volume. The Australian-origin corporate pipeline is building in Europe and leads say it continues to be an important option for many issuers even as the domestic market impresses with a series of record orderbooks.
The positive tone in the Australian dollar market continued for Brisbane Airport’s latest transaction, having convinced the borrower to pick the domestic issuance option and advance its execution plans. The issuer was rewarded with a substantial oversubscription that allowed it to tighten the deal margin significantly.
New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency is confident its latest Kangaroo deal demonstrates ongoing support for its name in Australian dollars, despite its recent loss of local repo eligibility. With four points now on its Australian dollar curve, the issuer says its new issuance focus will shift to building up line size rather than adding new benchmarks.
The size and breadth of demand for Telstra’s latest deal stands out – especially the scale of bids for 10-year corporate bonds. But deal sources say buy-side interest in corporate transactions is wider than it was a year ago and should support supply from a range of issuers.
ORDE Financial made its debut in the benchmark residential mortgage-backed securities market on 22 February, printing volume – A$1 billion in total – that KangaNews believes to be the most ever by a debutant nonbank issuer. The issuer shares perspectives on funding and execution strategy, a healthy domestic securitisation market and plans to grow its investor base further in future.
The result of tier-two transactions from domestic peers influenced Macquarie Bank’s decision to price its 10-year non-call five-year tier-two deal on 22 February. Ongoing demand for bank supply came through in a jumbo orderbook and a margin that equals those offered just weeks earlier by big-four banks.
The Australian dollar market has been hot at the start of 2024 but, as the H1 corporate issuance window opens, so are core global markets. Intermediaries say the euro and US dollar markets are both offering highly conducive conditions, providing Australian issuers no shortage of reasons to jet abroad sooner rather than later.