To anyone predicting a fall-off in issuance volumes and general spread widening in the wake of the GM/Ford sagas of last year, the market's resilience will have come as something of a surprise.
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European issuers of Tier 1 capital have an array of structures and currencies from which to choose. While the US dollar market found favour until recently, the NAIC’s reclassification of some transactions as common equity and investigation of others has hamstrung the sector for the foreseeable future. Can the euro true perpetual market offer an alternative? Philip Wright investigates.
After five years of corporate deleveraging, M&A activity has returned to Europe with a bang. Acquisition announcements are running close to record highs and corporate bankers are eagerly awaiting a flood of bond issuance. However, although the M&A revival will certainly result in increased corporate bond issuance, it is unlikely to have any significant impact on volumes until next year, as Helen Bartholomew reports.
The habit of larger institutions to fund at the beginning of the year, or front load issuance, has increasingly become a prominent feature of the SSA market in recent years. While it has been historically cost effective when responding to investor demand, is it necessarily the right course of action? Rachelle Horn reports.
In Japan, where the number of major underwriters fell to just four after the October merger of Mitsubishi-Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ, a new era of rising interest rates and regulatory changes have injected fresh dynamics into the game of sizing up the markets. Brad Frischkorn reports.
The NAIC threw the US subordinated market off line at the start 2006. Underwriters are said not to be earning fees from advising insurers on their appeals against its decisions, but many are already working on strategies to place the securities with retail accounts, albeit at the wider levels this requires. Andrew Stein reports.
Asia’s retail bid is a tantalising proposition for DCM bankers, with around US$6.5trn sitting in the region’s private banks as a result of surging economic growth and an average savings rate of 14% per household. But catching that bid has not been straightforward and it has proved itself a fickle beast, with numerous pundits predicting its demise as Treasury yields head north. Jonathan Rogers reports.
There are two ways of looking at Rabobank as a bond issuer. It is either an expensive bank or a cheap Triple A. What is certain is that it is a bank at the forefront of the market. Philip Wright reports
The bond markets have become increasingly important as a source of funding for German car manufacturer Porsche, which found that the lack of a credit rating was no barrier to a successful bond market visit earlier this year. After finding a strong Asian bid for its US dollar perpetual, the issuer found similarly strong demand for its euro senior benchmarks. Helen Bartholomew reports.
Hutchison Whampoa’s absence from the capital markets of late is testing the patience of bankers. But with a cash-pile and 3G becoming earnings accretive, it can afford to wait. Hutch has been Asia’s most prolific borrower in the offshore capital markets over the past few years. Its ambitious foray into 3G telephony required significant capital expenditure and despite some mishaps it has emerged as one of Asia’s savviest issuers. Jonathan Rogers reports.
The steadily improving credit story of Hyundai Capital Services has made it the kind of yen borrower that domestic Japanese investors scramble to make room for in their portfolios. Brad Frischkorn reports.
Wal-Mart emerged as a benchmark issuer in 2005 as it tapped the unsecured market for nearly US$8bn, up 62% from the year earlier. While the world’s largest retailer has yet to price a transaction this year, the company may also be on the verge of another significant transformation that could impact the capital markets. Andrew Stein reports.