Market Commentary.

20 Jan, 2016

G8 Education – Reduces Leverage after failed bid for Affinity

By |2021-09-24T09:50:30+10:00Jan 20, 2016|Market Commentary|

G8 Education Limited has announced the early redemption of $155m of Singapore Dollar Notes. These notes will be redeemed on 29 February 2016. The purpose of issuing these notes was predominantly for the acquisition for Affinity Education which subsequently did not proceed. In our last update we reiterated that downside risks to investors comes from increased debt to fuel an aggressive acquisition program [...]

20 Jan, 2016

Dick Smith – A lesson in Credit.

By |2016-01-20T02:45:50+11:00Jan 20, 2016|Market Commentary|

Everyone has now heard the story of the collapse of Dick Smith and that there are more than 100 interested parties representing over 350 unsecured creditors, owed about $250 million.  So what happened? On 4 January 2016, the board of directors of Dick Smith appointed Joseph Hayes, Jason Preston, William Harris and Matthew Caddy of McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators. Following this appointment, [...]

11 Jan, 2016

Goldman Contrarian Joins Chorus Warning on Bond-Market Liquidity

By |2016-01-11T03:37:41+11:00Jan 11, 2016|Federal Reserve, Market Commentary|

Wire: Bloomberg News (BN) Date: Nov 11 2015 8:35:30 Goldman Contrarian Joins Chorus Warning on Bond-Market Liquidity By Cordell Eddings (Bloomberg) -- Add Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief credit strategist to the list of market participants concerned about bond-market liquidity. Charles Himmelberg joined the chorus as the inventory of corporate bonds held by the Federal Reserve’s 22 primary dealers fell below zero last week for the [...]

22 Oct, 2015

Weekly Highlights

By |2021-09-24T09:38:30+10:00Oct 22, 2015|Market Commentary|

In a week filled with uncertainty the bond market outperformed with treasuries rallying across the curve. In Australia the Credit Indices outperformed equities (slightly) as Telstra (announcement from the ACCC), BHP (completion of huge Hybrid issue), Origin Energy (WTI Oil dropped ~8% from its recent high) and Westpac announced its $3.5billion capital raising. New issuance was again limited to a [...]

21 Oct, 2015

AGL Energy: News and Guidance is Credit Friendly

By |2015-10-21T23:55:48+11:00Oct 21, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Beginning of September, AGL disclosed that it completed the sale of its 50% participating interest in the 420MW MacArthur Wind Farm for $532m. This was earlier than expected as the company had guided for "first half of FY16" but in-line price-wise as it had anticipated a $500m price tag. It is an important milestone in AGL's target of $1bn of [...]

21 Oct, 2015

Crown Resorts: Price movements not reflective of credit fundamentals

By |2015-10-21T23:54:20+11:00Oct 21, 2015|Bonds, Market Commentary|

Both the share price and subordinated notes have recently experienced a rebound in their price: The share price has recovered from $8.99 on September 30th to above $12 currently; Crown Subordinated Notes are trading back above par ($100) after having reached a low of $98 on 15 September 2015; Similarly Crown Subordinated Notes II are trading back at $93, after having reached a [...]

8 Oct, 2015

Weekly Highlights

By |2021-09-24T09:38:30+10:00Oct 8, 2015|Market Commentary|

Credit markets were partially open last week but not particularly active and investor confidence was low due to continuing stock market volatility. It is difficult to gauge investor confidence at present, but press reports over the weekend that BHP Billiton was postponing their hybrid capital raising  to global investors as a result of weak credit markets suggests  institutional confidence in the credit markets is low. It is our understanding that no decision [...]

8 Oct, 2015

2015 Australian Financial Markets Report

By |2021-09-24T09:50:30+10:00Oct 8, 2015|Market Commentary|

We know the listed debt and hybrid market in Australia is dwarfed by the wholesale (over the counter) debt market but the 2015 Australian Financial Markets Report released this week just confirms the reality. Below is a chart plotting the physical cash turnover (that is the cash secondary market turnover) of the two markets. It looks as though the listed market doesn't exist [...]

1 Oct, 2015

Weekly Highlights

By |2021-09-24T09:38:30+10:00Oct 1, 2015|Market Commentary|

SMSF investors wont be happy this week as the proxy income giant Commonwealth Bank share price closed on Friday ($71.44) below the $71.50 retail entitlement price and hit a low of $70.15 before recovering to ~$73 as we write. There are a number of factors driving this sell off including a gloomy economic outlook for the region, increased capital and liquidity [...]

27 Aug, 2015

Weekly Highlights

By |2021-09-24T09:38:30+10:00Aug 27, 2015|Market Commentary|

The ASX200 has bounced 300 points off its intraday low (4928) as markets absorb the extreme volatility over the past week and look for clarity and confidence in Chinese markets. China's PBOC moved on Tuesday night to rate cuts by 0.25% (one year lending rate to 4.6% and deposit rate to 1.75%) and the Required Reserve Ratio down 0.50%. There [...]