Specialist securitisation in spotlight as Virgin Australia debuts with EEN
Virgin Australia has diversified away from more the traditional financing product favoured by airlines – the sale and leaseback – to become the first Australian-origin issuer to issue enhanced equipment notes (EENs). The issuer says it is only the fourth non-US domiciled airline to bring this type of structure and, while other Australasian carriers could follow, market participants suggest the possibility of the transaction being quickly repeated is slim.
Corporate Australia spreads the load in month-long issuance blast
Relative pricing and globally-conducive market conditions combined in September to allow Australian corporate issuers to execute on planned funding diversification strategies. European markets in particular proved to be a focal point for issuance, with issuers and intermediaries saying market tone has been sufficiently positive to allow borrowers to place deals wherever their funding needs can best be matched.
Strong offshore bid supports AOFM's new inflation-linked bond
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) says it saw strong support from offshore investors for its syndicated inflation-linked bond issue priced September 26. The development of an offshore primary bid for AOFM linkers has steadily increased from previous transactions.
Analysts see RBA cycle end in sight as hold decision causes little stir
At its October meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) elected to keep the cash rate at 2.5 per cent – a move predicted by all 33 economists in a Bloomberg survey ahead of the announcement. HSBC data says markets were also convinced of a hold decision in advance, with this being 95 per cent priced in.
WA loses S&P triple-A in face of expected fiscal action slippage [UPDATED]
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) downgraded its ratings on the state of Western Australia (WA) and Western Australian Treasury Corporation (WATC), to AA+ from AAA, on September 18. S&P believes the state government has "limited political will" to fully implement its fiscal action plan which, in the context of a current debt burden "at the high end of the domestic peer group", has spurred a downgrade.