Market Commentary.

4 Oct, 2017

Kodak: Blue-Chip Credit Decay

By |2017-10-04T23:50:29+11:00Oct 4, 2017|Case Study|

As history has shown, technological advancement is inevitable.  Facebook invented the concept of social media advertising, Amazon’s rise of e-commerce power is currently revolutionising the retail industry and share-ride app Uber has permanently altered people's transport options. History has also shown that companies who fail to adapt to technological transitions generally become obsolete.  A stark example of this is the [...]

21 Sep, 2017

Case Study: Tesla’s High-Yield Bond Sale

By |2017-09-21T03:56:09+10:00Sep 21, 2017|Case Study|

Over the past few years, futuristic car-maker Tesla has grown into arguably the market leader in energy-efficient auto-manufacturing. The group’s equity market capitalisation reached US$45.5 billion earlier this year in March, surpassing Ford’s US$45.4 billion for the first time. However, given the latter boasts revenue and assets of US$151.8 billion and US$238 billion respectively versus Tesla’s US$7 billion and US$22.7 [...]

6 Sep, 2017

Listed Issuance: Where to From Here?

By |2021-09-24T10:43:37+10:00Sep 6, 2017|Hybrids, Market Commentary|

In the benign economic climate, the technical environment (the forces of demand and supply) continue to dictate valuations in the ASX-listed Debt & Hybrid Market.  While trading margins have enjoyed an 18-month tightening cycle on the back of resilient demand, the momentum has undoubtedly slowed in recent months, with minimal net margin gains since January. Figure 1. Average Additional Tier [...]

6 Sep, 2017

UK to phase out LIBOR, What Next For Australia?

By |2017-09-06T07:22:54+10:00Sep 6, 2017|Education, Market Commentary|

In July 2017, the UK financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates LIBOR, announced that the global base rate would be phased out over the next four years, ending in 2021. Although it is unclear what will replace it. The London Interbank Offer Rate, LIBOR, is the benchmark interest rate that many of the largest banks in the [...]

24 Aug, 2017

The Risk in Using Shares For Income

By |2017-08-24T02:02:49+10:00Aug 24, 2017|Education, Market Commentary|

As we have progressed through reporting season, credit fundamentals have broadly remained intact with strong balance sheets, high liquidity and conservative capital management policies.  There have been no material deviations for our investment thesis with earnings being largely credit neutral across the spectrum.  However, as always, there have been winners and losers in the equity market, which has highlighted the [...]

7 Aug, 2017

AUSTRAC: Compliance and Credit

By |2017-08-07T23:34:22+10:00Aug 7, 2017|Case Study, Education|

On the 3rd August 2017, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) initiated civil penalties proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for ‘serious and systematic non-compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act)’. Alleged breaches of the AML/CTF Act include failure to perform risk assessment on CBA’s own Intelligent Deposit Machines (IDMs), failure [...]

27 Jul, 2017

Listed Corporate Income Securities Dwindle

By |2021-09-24T10:43:38+10:00Jul 27, 2017|Hybrids, Market Commentary|

For retail investors, the opportunity set for listed income securities outside the Bank Additional Tier 1 (AT1) hybrid universe has been contracting for some time now. This has been most prominent for listed corporate securities in which issuance has dwindled since Standard & Poor’s adjusted its ‘equity credit’ criteria in 2013. Under this criteria, corporate hybrid securities were originally classified [...]

27 Jul, 2017

Debt Trouble at Channel Ten

By |2017-07-27T02:44:26+10:00Jul 27, 2017|Case Study|

Ten Network Holdings Limited (ASX: TEN) shares were suspended for trading on the ASX on 9th June 2017. Its shares closed at $0.16 on the day, down more than 84% from a year ago, after it fell into administration with key billionaire investors, James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon failing to offer their support for a new debt facility [...]

28 Jun, 2017

Listed Tier 2 Maturity Wall

By |2021-09-24T10:43:38+10:00Jun 28, 2017|Hybrids, Market Commentary|

As a rule of thumb, we consider Major Bank Tier 2 securities as one of the best risk-adjusted capital investment for investors due to their superior capital structure ranking, non-discretionary interest payments and event of default terminology. Historically, while the retail (listed) Tier 2 market increased post-GFC, there was uncertainty among investors in the wholesale (over-the-counter) market regarding the premium associated [...]

28 Jun, 2017

Fed Looks To Reverse Quantitative Easing

By |2017-06-28T23:30:28+10:00Jun 28, 2017|Federal Reserve, Market Commentary|

As largely anticipated, the Federal Reserve two weeks ago raised US interest rates for the fourth time since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In addition to the rate hike, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) also announced it “intends to gradually reduce the Federal Reserve's securities holdings by decreasing its reinvestment in the System Open Market Account.” This indicates the [...]