6 Aug, 2015

1H2015 Results: Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited

By |2021-09-24T09:50:31+10:00Aug 6, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Earnings On 5 August 2015 Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited delivered its 1H 2015 result delivering a gross written premium (GWP) of $285 million, down 9% on a proforma basis as a result of low mortgage originations in the high LVR sector. Turning this into profit, the group experienced a net earned premium (NEP) of $265.7 million, up 3.7%. This was broadly in-line with [...]

5 Aug, 2015

FY2015 Results: Suncorp Group Ltd

By |2021-09-24T09:50:31+10:00Aug 5, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Group Earnings   Suncorp Group reported a full year 2015 cash earnings of $1,191m, down 8.7% from $1,304 million. This result was broadly in-line with market expectations despite the financial impact of the group’s worst year of natural hazard events which saw the allowance of $595m dwarfed by the final net impact of $1,068m. Headline numbers look solid but the composition of core earnings is [...]

1 Jul, 2015

Bond Market Turbulence: Is your Bond Portfolio Ready?

By |2021-09-24T09:50:31+10:00Jul 1, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Over the past few months there has been a significant amount of press about a “global bond market rout”. While this topic is justified it is isolated to certain product types (i.e. fixed rate bonds), so what might seem risky to some is not risky to others. For this reason we believe it is critical for Australian income investors to [...]

17 Jun, 2015

Origin Energy Investor Day: Sound strategy but maintain SELL recommendation

By |2015-06-17T05:33:31+10:00Jun 17, 2015|Bonds, Hybrids|

On 10 June 2015, Origin Energy held its investor day where management presented its strategy to improve returns in Energy Markets and its action plan for the entire company. It's four main priorities are: Improve returns in the energy markets businesses: In Energy markets (56% of the Group's EBITDA), as demand for gas is due to increase, notably for export [...]

1 Jun, 2015

AGL Strategy Road Map: No change to our HOLD recommendation

By |2015-06-01T05:00:10+10:00Jun 1, 2015|Hybrids|

This week was a big week for AGL Energy, as it released its strategic road map ahead of a two-day investor briefing at AGL's Macquarie Generation power plants in the Hunter Valley. It was also the occasion for newly appointed CEO Andy Vesey to outline its plan on how to improve its return on funds employed and hopefully deliver sustainable earnings growth in [...]

28 May, 2015

S&P Lowers its Outlook from Positive to Stable on Goodman Group: Confirms our HOLD recommendation

By |2015-05-28T00:35:49+10:00May 28, 2015|Bonds, Hybrids|

S&P revised last week Goodman Group's outlook from Positive to Stable, while at the same time confirming its BBB long-term corporate credit rating. The change of outlook is due to the rating agency's assessment that Goodman's financial policy won't be as financially conservative and would be prepared to increase its look-through gearing to 40-45% in certain circumstances. The rating agency [...]

25 May, 2015

Bank Income: Deposits, Debt, Hybrids or Equity

By |2015-05-25T02:40:22+10:00May 25, 2015|Deposits, Hybrids|

The chase for yield by self managed super funds has been well documented but despite the warnings by regulators, commentators and analysts about further changes to regulations, bank share prices continued to trade well above their long term average (on a price to earnings multiple basis). In a low interest rate environment this demand for yield is completely understandable, but dividends are purely a function of capital [...]

20 May, 2015

Exchange Traded Bond Units (“XTBs”) have launched

By |2015-05-20T05:37:34+10:00May 20, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Last week the Australian Corporate Bond Company formally launched their Exchange Traded Bond Units ("XTBs") offering retail investors access to corporate bonds on the Australian Securities Exchange. This product will change the way investors participate in fixed income markets which were historically restricted to wholesale investors. Here is a list of XTB's available as at 19 May 2015: ASX Code Underlying Bond Underlying Issuer YTMAZJ [...]

13 May, 2015

Bank shares or Bank Tier 1 hybrids – a question of choice!

By |2015-05-13T04:47:41+10:00May 13, 2015|Bonds, Hybrids, Market Commentary|

The last two weeks have seen a severe decline in the price of bank shares, a steepening in the yield curve and a slight widening in Tier 1 regulated Bank hybrid securities. As an example CBA’s PERLS VII is off 6.5% from its issue price and the common equity is off 15% from its high ($96.30). This gives investors the following yield choices: CBA special deposit [...]