News
Fitch Ratings and KangaNews have been conducting the Fixed-Income Investor Survey since the first half of 2014. The 2020 iteration combines a deeply negative outlook with vast areas of uncertainty to produce the survey’s most worrying set of data ever.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) jumped into the fog of dislocated debt capital markets in March with an unlimited government and semi-government asset purchase programme. Local investors are contemplating a cascade of market consequences.
One easy conclusion to draw about the COVID-19 pandemic is that the measures put in place to fight it will cause unemployment to rise precipitously. Anticipating this, lenders have already begun offering loan payment holidays and other types of forbearance.
The following interview is with an Australian-based fixed-income investor. It was conducted on 22 April 2020.
Australasian market deal flow was steady in the week ending 24 April. Suncorp-Metway printed a A$750 million (US$477.9 million) five-year covered bond, while Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities, priced its first inflation-indexed bond.
Inflation-linked bonds could come to form a greater portion of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities’ funding portfolio as it provides long-term funding matched to its primary revenue stream, the issuer tells KangaNews after its debut deal in the format.
On 24 April, Treasury Corporation of Victoria (TCV) (AAA/Aaa) revealed it has completed its 2019/20 funding task. It also indicated its expectation that its funding task for 2020/21 will be A$20-24 billion (US$12.7-15.2 billion), an increase of A$10-14 billion from previous forecasts.
The following interview is with a Singapore-based fixed-income syndicate executive. It was conducted on 21 April 2020.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is meeting its targets for unconventional monetary policy and has begun tapering its purchases. The market appears to have avoided an adverse response so far, indicating a degree of comfort with the RBA’s policy, analysts say.
In the wake of its return to domestic issuance, Suncorp-Metway says likely volatility in the months ahead mean it is more important than ever to secure funding when the opportunity presents. The issuer became the first Australian-domiciled credit issuer to print a new bond deal since the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis, on 20 April.
Greg Hammond is perhaps still best known to Australian debt-market participants for his former role as a partner at King & Wood Mallesons (KWM). More recently, Hammond has become a key player in the mutual space, including as a director at G&C Mutual Bank and as the author of a report into the sector that has sparked much discussion on issues including capital and mutual entities. Hammond spoke to KangaNews shortly after the KangaNews Mutual Sector Wholesale Funding Seminar.