Day One Wednesday 21st November 2007
08:30 Registration and Morning Refreshments
09:15 Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Keith Mullin, Editor-in-Chief, IFR
Keynote Address
09:30 Economic outlook and new opportunities in Australia
- What is the macroeconomic outlook for the Australian economy?
- How dependant is the Australian economy on commodity prices remaining high? And for how long can commodity prices remain at such high levels.
- Are Australian companies capitalising on the Asian boom beyond the resources sector?
- What are the main local and international threats to Australia’s continued economic expansion?
Brian Redican, Senior Economist and Division Director, Macquarie Bank
10:20 Trends in global credit markets: impact on Australia
- Given this year’s market turmoil, are global markets still borrower friendly?
- To what extent are Australian borrowers impacted by global trends?
- Will global trends push Australian companies more towards domestic or international capital market issuance?
- Will Australian borrowers raise capital in ECM, DCM, securitisation or syndicated loan form?
- Cost of funds. How does pricing in local markets compare with pricing in the international capital markets?
- What affect will rising interest rates have on Australian companies’ borrowing ambitions?
Peter Christie, Head of Corporate Securities Origination, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
11:10 Refreshments
11:30 Domestic capital markets: playing at home
- What are the latest developments in Australian capital markets?
- Is the Australian market big enough and liquid enough to meet the financing needs for Australian corporates?
- What does the Australian investor base look like?
- How much foreign participation is there in the Australian market?
- What are the advantages of raising capital domestically rather than internationally?
- What are the pros and cons of issuing local currency debt?
- How integrated are Australian capital markets with regional Asian and global capital markets? Will this internationalisation continue?
- How big an advantage do Australian banks have in their home market over foreign banks?
Mark Garrick, Global Head of Capital Markets Origination, nabCapital
12:20 Bonds – chasing the international bid
- What opportunities exist for Australian corporate issuers to tap the international bond market?
- How much appetite is there for Australian exposure among US and European investors?
- Are Asian investors developing an appetite for Australian corporate bonds?
- Can Australian issuers raise cost-effective subordinated or hybrid capital in the international markets?
David Bailey, Head of Debt Capital Markets, Citi
13:10 Lunch
14:30 Syndicated Loans – the impact of falling margins
- What is the prognosis for the Australian syndicated loan market?
- How competitive is loan pricing against costs in other capital markets?
- Are there too many banks chasing too little return?
- What are the risks to lending banks in lowering lending fees, extending maturities and easing covenants?
- How active are foreign banks?
Aziz Dean, Head of Global Loans and Leveraged Finance, Citi
15:20 Securitisation – how safe is the market?
- How insulated is the Australian market from the US market and its sub-prime woes?
- Could something similar to the US sub-prime crisis hit the Australian market in terms of low-doc lending?
- What can the Australian market learn from global developments?
- Will standard MBS continue to dominate the Australian securitisation market?
- Will other securitisation classes, such as auto-backed ABS, emerge?
- Why is MBS so dominant and why are other classes emerging so slowly?
Patrick Eng, Head of ABS, Credit Suisse
16:10 Chairman’s Closing Remarks, Questions and Answers
16.20 End of Day 1
Day Two Thursday 22nd November 2007
08:30 Morning Refreshments
09:20 Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Keith Mullin, Editor-in-Chief, IFR
9:30 Outlook for LBOs in Australia
- Leveraged finance markets have taken a hit globally, what has the Australian story been?
- Institutional investors are now taking a more conservative approach to LBOs. What are the implications for the Australian market and will this constrain the market’s growth?
- Are banks still willing to support aggressive LBOs?
- How is private equity viewing current valuations?
- All the major private equity houses are in Australia but is there a growing pool of domestic private equity?
Tim Whitehead, Executive Director, Co-head of Leveraged Finance, Goldman Sachs JB Were.
10:20 Opportunities in equity capital markets
- Are equities a viable funding tool for Australian corporates?
- Are investors willing to forego liquidity if smaller issuers tap the markets?
- What is the state of portfolio investment from international investors?
- What is the 2008 IPO calendar looking like?
Jay MacGregor, Director, Equity Capital Markets, Citi
11.00 Refreshments
11:20 Opportunities for investment in infrastructure
- Overview of the major projects in process
- What are the latest trends in Australian project and infrastructure finance?
- How active are foreign banks in the infrastructure finance space?
- Is leverage getting too high on infrastructure financings?
- Will the deals keep coming? What does the 2008 pipeline look like?
John Martin, Head of Structured Finance, ABN AMRO
12:00 Chairman’s closing remarks, questions and answers
12:15 Lunch
13:30 End of Conference