Fitch Ratings
Australian corporate credit on the rebound
Investment-grade corporate Australia has weathered the COVID-19 crisis better than could have been expected as the pandemic accelerated in March and April 2020, according to participants at a Fitch Ratings-KangaNews roundtable at the end of the year. A supportive local debt market was just one of the factors behind this resilience.
Australian credit market confident on economic recovery and market outlook
Australia’s corporate debt market has performed well despite two years of pandemic-related disruption to businesses and – at times – market function. Participants at a Fitch Ratings-KangaNews roundtable at the end of 2021 discuss market evolution, the 2022 outlook and the prospect of further sustainability integration into fixed income.
A decade of development
The KangaNews-Westpac Corporate Debt Summit debuted in 2011, with a relatively small audience and a market that could not yet take consistent supply of corporate bonds for granted. In the decade since, the event and the market have grown and diversified. By 2019 – the last year before COVID-19 put the in-person event on hiatus – registrations had more than trebled, to nearly 600, and the event’s agenda covered not just corporate debt but a raft of issues relevant to the economic and business environment.
Westpac announces funding-only RMBS mandate
Australian credit market’s big winners
Australian corporate and nonbank borrowers have made the most of a playing field left open to them by the absence of major-bank senior bond issuance since early 2020. Whether the credit market remains as deep for these borrowers once banks return is one of the biggest questions heading into the second half of 2021.
Fixed-income investor survey: pandemic risks abating
The 2021 iteration of the Fitch Ratings-KangaNews Fixed-Income Investor Sentiment Survey suggests Australian investor concern about COVID-19-related risk has eased. The buy side expects lending conditions to loosen further and net issuance to rise across asset classes – all predicated on the expectation of and reliance on support from ongoing unconventional monetary policy.
