League Tables

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Sovereign, supranational and agency issuershave long had a habit of concentrating their borrowing in the first half of the year. But that trend seems to have accelerated in2011, with many of the larger SSA issuers having completed up to 40% of their annual borrowing targets by...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Following the Irish bailout in late 2010 many market participants thought that the increasing presence of the European Union on behalf of the European Financial Stability Mechanism, and the EFSF in the market, could undermine the SSA sector. Many assumed the increased competition for funds would be a major headache for SSA issuers. The first benchmark deal for the EU appeared in early January, with the EFSF not far behind. Contrary to some expectations both issues tightened...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. According to the poet T.S. Eliot, April is the cruellest month. The US bond market may have a different view, having breezed through the month despite two events that were expected to send yields soaring. First, the decision by Standard & Poor’s to place the US economy on negative outlook barely made a dent on Treasury prices. Similarly, the announcement last month by US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke that the central bank will end quantitative easing in June failed to create...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The SSA market has seen at least four new issuers appear so far this year. And not only has it been able to absorb the initial supply pressure, the signs are it may even be starting to benefit from it. Despite a year of ongoing volatility, the SSA market has continued to thrive. The largest issuers had completed around 40% of their year to date funding by the end of Q1, despite a number of new entrants with sizable borrowing programmes that in some cases financed ten years worth...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The year started with an explosion of sales of agency debt in January and February. This was particularly true in Europe, after a rise in yields and risk aversion fuelled investor demand for highly-rated securities.  Despite economic tribulations in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, European agencies sold €154bn of debt this year up to the third week of April, according to data provider Dealogic. In 2010 they sold €272bn. Supply dynamics in the agency space traditionally favour early...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The financial markets of Japan (Aa2/AA–/AA) remain strangely undisturbed by the country’s ongoing deflation and the Great Tohoku Earthquake. There is a stark contrast between the relatively positive short-term and pessimistic long-term views on the sovereign’s credit. But all agree there will be no near-term crisis stemming from the sovereign’s debt. The yen capital markets will remain active. Perhaps what highlights this most clearly is the recent sovereign outlook cut to...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Emerging Europe’s traditional enthusiasm for all things EU convergent – including the euro-denominated bond market to meet its hard currency funding requirements – has been undermined in recent years. Peripheral EU countries’ ongoing fiscal struggles have convinced government officials in Budapest, Vilnius and Zagreb that dollar issuance now represents the smoothest and most cost effective means of raising money in the international market place. This year the Republic of Lithuania...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (NR/B+/BB–) made its long-awaited bow in the international bond market in January 2011. The US$500m 10-year Reg S/144a transaction was not without its problems, with negative press reports souring the tone in the run-up to launch. In particular, a front page Financial Times article reported big investors’ concerns about huge outflows from the country’s excess crude account during a period of buoyant oil prices. The debut 6.75% 2021s attracted a...