IFR’s German Corporate Funding roundtable was held via video call on December 13 with a panel comprising issuers (Knorr-Bremse and Vonovia), an investor (DWS) and banks (Commerzbank and HSBC). The discussion focused on corporate bond market activity and how the suite of economic and geopolitical headwinds had affected activity and pricing in a year that will be remembered for uncertainty and volatility.
China’s onshore and offshore markets have been fascinating to watch this year with international and domestic influences pulling the two in different directions, while the collapse in China’s real estate sector has left anyone exposed to property issuers with a bitter taste in their mouths.
The importance of Brazil to South America and the wider world is undeniable. It is home to around half the continent’s population, covers half its geography and contributes about half its GDP. It wields huge political and economic power in the region, while the proportion of the Amazon rain forest in its territory means it plays a global role in realising the world’s climate change ambitions.
Market participants urge greater transparency and hope for supportive Chinese policies
Sustainable finance continues to develop at pace as politicians and businesses bring forward their net-zero emission target dates. It’s no mean task. Fortunately, the quantity of funds rolling into ESG-leaning asset managers is rising to meet the cost of the transition. But is the market sufficiently mature to efficiently direct funds into the projects and behaviour needed to create the desired outcome?
Environmental, social and governance concerns are competing with geopolitical and macroeconomic issues as major problems to be tackled by governments, corporates and individuals in Asia and around the world. The threat to the environment and public health of global warming ensures that the topic of rebuilding sustainable economies and businesses in a just and inclusive way is a constant theme at the top table of governments, regulators, corporates, banks and investors.
Issuers, bankers and investors ended last year with the certainty that things could only get better in Asia’s bond market. Instead, in the first two months of 2022 they somehow got worse.
India’s debt markets have weathered their fair share of challenges over the past few years. Long before the Coronavirus pandemic began to make its presence felt around the world, India had suffered from a string of defaults in non-banking financial companies, sapping the confidence of the financial sector. The onset of the Covid-19 crisis shattered the already fragile sentiment in the market and wiped out years of India’s hard-won economic expansion.
