News
The KangaNews Market People of the Year were revealed at the KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner on 21 March. These are the individuals who voters in the KangaNews Awards 2022 believe went above and beyond their roles to contribute to the development of the Australian and New Zealand debt markets. There are no restrictions on the firms, positions or seniority of winners – voters are simply asked to consider who contributed most to the market in either or both 2022 specifically or across the span of a career.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which subsequently triggered wider concerns about the banking sector, brought new issuance in Australia and elsewhere to a near halt. Three Kangaroo issuers tested the water with taps in the Australian dollar market while, in New Zealand, Kiwi Property Group priced its senior-secured retail green bond.
Meridian Energy’s retail green bond priced the day before the Silicon Valley Bank crisis hit newsstands. Market participants say the deal’s result provides further proof of the strength of New Zealand’s retail corporate bond market. Global primary markets have been all but shut since the shock, but Kiwi Property Group proceeded with its launch on 14 March, suggesting the New Zealand retail market is pushing ahead.
As global markets gradually come to terms with the implications of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Australian market participants agree that even the world’s better regulated banking sectors – and wider credit markets – will feel ongoing negative consequences from what most believe to be an idiosyncratic risk event. The bank failure brought a promising start for credit issuance in Australia to a screeching halt and while there are hopes for rebound in due course it will likely be on a more fragile basis.
Thinktank Group took advantage of an improving securitisation market to print an upsized transaction in its first market visit of 2023 – just before the latest wave of event risk put Australian new issuance on hiatus for the near term at least. Thinktank has aspirations to price two further deals this calendar year but says its latest transaction sets it up well in an environment of slower lending growth.