Inflation indexed bonds in AOFM mix

Apart from its twice-weekly government bond issues detailed below, AOFM announced last week that it will commence issuing capital indexed bonds on behalf of the Commonwealth government. This will no d.. read more

South Canterbury and Marac junked

Standard & Poor's resolved its CreditWatch with negative implications and lowered its credit ratings on South Canterbury Finance to 'BB+/B' from 'BBB-/A-3'. While the outlook on the rating is nega.. read more

Supply shortage driving NZ housing prices

In sharp contrast to, and also in part because of, the woes facing the property development sector in New Zealand, house prices are expected to rise by 11 per cent in the coming year and rise by as mu.. read more

Sky City buys back while AIA is set to issue

Staying in New Zealand, Standard & Poor's announced it had rated a new NZ$25 million, seven-year, bond to be issued by Auckland International Airport, 'A-', in line with the 'A-/Stable/A-2' issuer.. read more

Moody's on New Zealand's banking system

Following on from the release of its "Asia Banking Outlook 2009" report in June, in which it stated that the outlook for the Australian and New Zealand banking systems is negative, Moody's Investor Se.. read more

Rating affirmations for some

Moody's commented on the fiscal 2009 results of both BHP Billiton and Telstra. In the case of the former, it observed that the results were broadly within expectations and held no implications for the.. read more

New and continuing reviews

Assured Guaranty Corp. completed its acquisition of Financial Security Assurance Inc. at the end of June but since before that time Fitch has had its 'AA' and 'AA+' insurer financial strength ratings.. read more

Quiet week for NZ debt market

Westpac added NZ$100 million to its government-guaranteed July 2014 line to take outstandings to NZ$675 million. The line was opened only three weeks earlier but Westpac was able to achieve a 10 bps c.. read more

A win of sorts

Mallesons Stephen Jacques released a note to clients last week, that might provide some comfort to the ex-Lehman Bros clients now pursuing the firm over failed CDO investments, albeit possibly brief. read more

Stressed out but surviving

Standard & Poor's released a report last week that outlines the results of stress tests undertaken on 19 sub-prime and non-conforming RMBS transactions comprising 118 tranches of rated notes. Whil.. read more