To view the digital version of this report, please <a onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onkeypress="window.open(this.href);return false;" href="http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?EID=658d4d4d-e522-4d23-b5d0-33f6c4d2adaf">click here</a>. To purchase printed copies or a PDF of this report, please email gloria.balbastro@thomsonreuters.com No stone unturned A year on from the last Top 250 Borrowers report and the issues that

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The policy bank has been instrumental to South Korea’s economic growth since its inception in 1976 as a government-owned trade finance lender, not only via its lending but also, crucially in debt capital market terms, for providing benchmarking curve points to the universe of Korean issuers of offshore debt. Kexim raised the bar high in terms of its offshore debt issuance activity, by targeting in January a mammoth US$11bn to be rais

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Although the mortgage finance company is consistently among the world’s largest issuers of debt securities – it is in the market less frequently these days. That as much as anything has helped ratchet up demand. “There is just a huge demand for Treasury-like bonds,” said Ralph Axel, analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. The volatility in Europe and the fact that a number of the sovereign, supranational and agency issu

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Amid such an uncertain market and given the strong demand for all kinds of bonds in the first quarter, any issuer that considers itself savvy would have met most of its funding needs in the beginning of the year, when investors were still upbeat. So it is no surprise that the ADB has already raised two-thirds of what it will require this year from the dollar market. Add in some timely pre-funding done last year and the ADB has pocket

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Sentiment towards the US car sector has strengthened over the past few months and the move by Moody’s was widely expected in the wake of a similar upgrade by Fitch in April. Ford has taken full advantage of the positive signals, raising funds from its diverse and growing crowd of believers. It priced its first Dim Sum bond a month before the Fitch upgrade, and received an overwhelming response from investors. The carmaker attracted o

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. For much of the latter part of 2011 the market for European banks was closed, embroiled in the uncertainty of the sovereign debt crisis that was ravaging Europe, but the Long Term Refinancing Operation had forced the door open early this year by satisfying investors that the European Central Bank was not about to let the banking system collapse.  Yet the uncertainty of the time defined SG’s approach to its financing activities. “We h

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. With pent-up demand due to a lack of issuance and investors looking to put money to work in safe top-tier names, America Movil is expected to be able to issue virtually when and what it likes across a range of markets. “A well-known issuer like America Movil could even issue in this climate as investors would buy this as a flight to quality,” said Eric Ollom, a credit analyst at Citigroup. This year it became the first issuer from La

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The ever-changing creditworthiness of Southern Europe has become a global obsession, with concern reaching far beyond the financial community itself. Greece led the march towards financial oblivion in 2011, with Portugal and Ireland playing supporting roles. In recent months, however, Italy and Spain became more pressing concerns, the scale of carnage likely to accompany a default by one of them upping the ante in the European sovere

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Glencore successfully completed US$27bn of loans within 12 months, proving that commodity firms, with their global reach and large ancillary wallets have remained relatively immune to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The Swiss trading firm’s US$12.46bn loan refinancing which was completed in May provided a rare first-half highlight for the European syndicated loan market. The picture looked bleak as European loan volumes slipped t

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. If anything, investor respect for the market, and the bureaucrats at the US Debt Management Office that administer the issuance programme has increased over the past few years, given the significant challenge of operating amid the leadership vacuum on Capitol Hill. “The US Treasury market remains the most liquid bond market in the world despite QE, Operation Twist and competition from other large debtor countries. To that extent, you

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator raised more than ¥1.14trn (US$14.53bn) from May 1 2011 to April 30 2012, according to Thomson Reuters data. Yet its business delivered solid cashflows that have firmly cemented its present standing in the investment-grade universe; a stark contrast to the cash-strapped, high-yield credit it was in the post-Lehman days. Almost all of the debt is at the parent SoftBank, which has been raking

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. This year has seen the European Union more than double the average maturity of its benchmark issuance from last year. In volatile times, where some have sought solace at the short end of the curve, this could be seen as a risky strategy. But careful planning and a well-communicated strategy ensured investors were not only aware of what to expect but actively welcomed it. If there is one thing investors like – especially in uncertain

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The European convertible bond market had slipped into obscurity after a rush of issuance in the first years of the 21st century. The years 2001 and 2003 – where issuance was close to US$50bn – are a distant memory, but the first jumbo since the good old days, courtesy of Siemens provided a glimmer of hope for a brighter future. When Siemens returned to the equity-linked market after a nine-year absence it did so in style. The market

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Priceline.com, rated Triple B, was the first of several issuers to tap into unmet demand with a US$875m, six-year unsecured CB in March that featured a 50% conversion premium; at the time among the highest premiums in years. Equally impressive was the ultra-low 1% coupon paid for the liquidity bump, making the CB a compelling alternative to straight debt. “We had seen very little issuance when this deal was done, particularly by inve

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Hopes of a revival in high-yield issuances have faded somewhat with bankers focusing on blue chips and the record low coupons they can potentially achieve as US base rates hit record lows as investors flee to the relative safety of US Treasuries. Yet constantly shifting sentiment has exacerbated execution risks in a market constantly under the threat of headline risk.  Still, inflows into emerging market bond funds and dearth of supp

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Senior unsecured debt used to be cheap for banks to issue as investors focused on the bonds’ seniority, overlooking the fact that they were unsecured. Under proposals put forward by the European Commission, the senior unsecured debt of a failing institution could be converted into equity, significantly reducing the benefits of seniority while making unsecured debt particularly vulnerable relative to other types of debt, notably cover

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. For many the internationalisation of the renminbi has been one of the most significant developments in the financial markets since the introduction of the euro. It is hard to disagree. Daily trading volumes in the US dollar and offshore renminbi now exceed the equivalent of US$2bn according to Deutsche Bank. Ever since the first issue of an offshore renminbi bond by China Development Bank five years ago, immediately dubbed Dim Sum bo

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Other debt markets have been bounced around by volatility, but the global sukuk market has seen growth, tightening spreads and is now looking beyond its natural homelands to new markets across the Asia-Pacific region. To put that into perspective, global sukuk issuance totalled US$26.5bn last year. This year it is heading towards US$44bn – with 60% of that from Malaysia, according to HSBC data. There is no doubt that Asia is where th

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. An excess of anything can have some unsightly consequences, even in the world of bonds. US corporates have been feasting on record low funding costs for more than a year now, thanks to the Fed’s stimulus. A steady stream of funds out of low-yielding Treasuries and into corporate bonds has also helped issuers such as IBM achieve some of the lowest coupons ever seen in the history of the US capital markets. But that has left many issue

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. When US insurance giant AIG was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2008, the Fed’s Maiden Lane III vehicle eased some of the insurer’s obligations by buying toxic CDOs from its counterparties. In exchange for being bought out at 100 cents on the dollar, the counterparties agreed to terminate the swaps. That deal was widely criticised as being a back-door bailout of the banks with which AIG conducted business. Now, as legacy US non-agency