News
On International Women’s Day – 8 March – KangaNews once again hosted leaders from the New Zealand capital market at a wide-ranging roundtable discussion. The conversation covered the challenging phase in which markets and the economy find themselves as well as the intersection with diversity and inclusion, and the future of work.
Not long ago, the Australian corporate credit market was struggling to shake off the perception of being the first to close and the last to reopen. While corporate deal flow has been limited in 2022, investors and intermediaries say there has not been a full-scale retreat of liquidity – which represents a step-change in market maturity.
When markets are volatile and issuance windows shrink, the purpose of the covered-bond asset class is to provide a defensive funding platform. This is not lost on Australia’s major banks, which tapped the market during March’s elevated volatility.
Australian market deal activity was again muted in the week ending 29 April, though Royal Bank of Canada Sydney Branch printed a covered bond. Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities and Precinct Properties executed deals in New Zealand.
Investors leapt at the chance to buy into CSL’s 144A market debut, deal sources say. The record volume outcome and extended tenor were accompanied by a greater margin tightening across all tranches well above the market’s recent average, all supported by a willing and able investor base.
KangaNews has launched its revamped sustainable bond league tables for the Australian and New Zealand markets, having updated the league table criteria to include sustainability-linked as well as labelled bonds, following a period of extensive research. The goal is to deliver a robust, best-practice methodology that can adapt to market evolution while demanding high standards from issuers and deal arrangers.
KangaNews hosted its annual roundtable discussion for Australia’s leading bank fixed-income strategists in March amid a fast-changing world. While inflation, interest rates and geopolitical risk are on the rise, financial markets are not yet in crisis territory. The strategists agree Australia is in relatively sound financial shape as the world moves into a higher rates regime.
The most significant factor in global markets for close to a decade and a half has been abundant liquidity. Initially – and ironically – sparked by the liquidity-driven global financial crisis, central banks have flooded markets with funds and in doing so created unprecedented conditions and a raft of anomalous outcomes. But signs are now growing that at least some degree of reversion is underway.