News
Asian Development Bank (ADB) (AAA/Aaa/AAA) mandated an increase to two Kangaroo bonds on 9 May. ADB is planning to increase its January 2022 Kangaroo by at least A$350 million (US$258.7 million) with price guidance of 33 basis points over semi-quarterly swap. It is also marketing a A$100 million increase to its September 2027 line at 48 basis points over semi-quarterly swap.
Kommunalbanken Norway (KBN) (AAA/Aaa) launched a minimum NZ$50m (US$34.5 million) increase to its August 2025 Kauri bond on 8 May. According to KangaNews data, the forthcoming transaction will be the first Kauri print since the Export-Import of Korea priced a NZ$400 million five-year deal on 23 February.
On 8 May, Volkswagen Financial Services Australia (VWFS) launched its new Australian dollar asset-backed securities (ABS) issue, Driver Australia Four Trust. The forthcoming transaction has indicative volume of A$441 million on the AAA/AAA rated class A notes and A$25 million on the A+/AA- class B notes, with price guidance of 100-105 basis points area and 175 basis points area over bank bills respectively.
According to an announcement lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on 5 May, Suncorp Group (Suncorp) has closed its capital notes offer, increasing the size of the perpetual, subordinated and convertible additional-tier-one issue to A$375 million (US$227.9 million) from A$300 million following the bookbuild and A$250 million at launch.
Kiwibank’s decision to pull a planned Kangaroo transaction between pricing and settlement was driven by a preliminary Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) view that the issuer’s outstanding tier-one and tier-two securities may not comply with the local capital-adequacy regime.
The KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner, held on 21 March in Sydney, celebrated the winners of the KangaNews Awards 2016. KangaNews is proud to share a flavour of the dinner, which brings together participants in the Australian and New Zealand debt markets from across the two countries and all around the world. KangaNews would like to thank all the guests for contributing to such a memorable evening, and for supporting Cure Cancer Australia with their donations
New Zealand has enjoyed several years of economic outperformance and fixed-income market development. Speakers at the KangaNews New Zealand Capital Markets Forum, which took place in Wellington in March and was sponsored by ANZ, are keeping a close eye out for signs of economic overheating and continue to seek new assets for the growing pool of local investment funds.
In March, KangaNews hosted its third annual Socially Responsible Investment Seminar in Sydney – at a time in which environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles are planting deep roots in the local investor base and being met by a greater flow of targeted product. Together with its headline sponsor, TD Securities, KangaNews presents a flavour of Australia’s thought leadership in the socially responsible debt space.
Australia’s burgeoning green-bond market was supplemented in March by the issue of the country’s first benchmark social bond. Key deal sources discuss the considerations behind the transaction at issuer and market level, and lay out the challenges that may lie in the way of substantial growth.
If socially responsible fixed-income asset classes, and in particular green bonds, become a consistent component of the Australian debt market it seems likely that March-April 2017 will be looked back on as a landmark period. Issuance volume hit an all-time high, including a clutch of breakthrough and innovative transactions.
KangaNews features the work of Dr Steven Lane, who is the recipient of a Cure Cancer Australia 2017 grant funded by KangaNews and Kapstream Capital. After speaking at the 2017 KangaNews Awards Gala Dinner, Lane talks about his work and the generosity of capital-markets participants on the night.
In 2007, to commemorate the birth of the Kauri market for supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) issuers, BNZ committed to planting 100 Kauri trees in New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula for each transaction it arranged. As the market approaches its 10th anniversary, BNZ took a group of the biggest Kauri issuers to see the plantation and reflect on the sector’s evolution.