News
With debt-market issuance for 2018 now well under way, KangaNews looks back at the past year to review the final outcome of its Australian and New Zealand intermediary league tables in 2017. The stars are largely familiar faces but the billing order continues to shift – and the supporting cast features a few newer names.
In the wake of the Kangaroo market’s first inaugural issue for 2018, Qatar National Bank (QNB)’s debut transaction on 24 January, issuer and intermediaries say conducive market conditions and extensive investor relations provided the foundation for a successful outcome.
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) completed its 10th residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) divestment auction on 30 January, selling 100 per cent of the securities on offer. The total amortised face value sold was A$361.6 million (US$292.1 million) across five lines of RMBS originally issued by Bank of Queensland, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN), Macquarie Bank and Suncorp.
The Kauri market’s revival at the start of 2018 continued throughout January, demonstrated by the highest volume for the month seen in several years. Intermediaries say to the renaissance has been driven by more favourable basis-swap pricing, asset growth, stability in the political backdrop and the ongoing hunt for supply.
KangaNews is pleased to make its full transaction list from the Australian and New Zealand debt markets for calendar 2017 – including Kangaroo, Kauri and Australian securitisation deals – available for the first time.
The ability of Vodafone Group (Vodafone) to execute a sizeable Australian dollar transaction in short order and close to the end of a calendar year is testament to the further development of the local market, buy-side sources and intermediaries agree. The enhanced status of the Australian market is only emphasised by the issuer’s ability to print in scale without specific local premarketing.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) elected to open its term-funding account for calendar 2018 with a long-dated and subordinated transaction because it spotted an “incredibly strong” market opportunity, issuer sources tell KangaNews.
The supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) Kangaroo market reopened for 2018 with two European Investment Bank (EIB)-issued climate-awareness bond transactions that intermediaries hope will foreshadow another robust year in the sector. The benchmark volume of the initial transaction underscores solid investor confidence in Kangaroo SSAs, intermediaries insist.
The sixth annual corporate borrowers roundtable discussion hosted by BNP Paribas and KangaNews took place in December 2017, at the end of an interesting year for bond issuance by corporate Australia. Key corporate players discuss quantitative tapering (QT), regulation and what 2018 might bring.
In early December 2017, for the second year running, KangaNews invited debt strategists from the best-performing houses in its mid-year Fixed-Income Research Poll to a roundtable discussion to look at the year passed and to come. In a wide-ranging conversation, strategists share views on international and domestic market conditions, rates and yield directions and why inflation is the missing piece in the global recovery.
On 21 December, South Australian Government Financing Authority (SAFA) revised down its gross-funding requirement by A$1.2 billion (US$919.2 million) for the 2017/18 financial year. Following the South Australian mid-year budget review, SAFA’s revised funding programme is A$3.6 billion.
On 19 December, Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) revealed its term-funding programme for 2017/18 has been increased by A$200 million (US$153.4 million) following the Queensland government’s mid-year fiscal and economic review. The increase brings QTC’s total requirement for the year to A$7 billion, of which the treasury corporation confirms it has already raised A$6 billion.