IFR Top 250 Borrowers table

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. It has been a year that has seen the headlines dominated by a sovereign debt crisis in Europe. This time last year, the carnage that would be wrought by cripplingly high debt in Greece, Portugal and Ireland was already visible on the horizon. Europeans had already taken...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. In July 2008, following nearly a year in which the world’s financial markets went through a period more tumultuous than any other in living memory, Henry Paulson, then US Secretary of the Treasury, declared: “We are at the early stages of what should be a promising path, where the nascent US covered bond market can grow and provide a new source of mortgage financing.” Paulson’s predictions of growth have largely born fruit. In the foreword to the European Covered Bond Council’s 2010...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. A strengthening global economy at the beginning of 2011 fueled expectations of consolidation among semiconductor manufacturers. Acquisitions and rationalisation of capacity seemed to be the obvious answer to high fixed operational costs and deep cyclicality inherent to the industry. In April, Texas Instruments, agreed to acquire National Semiconductor for US$6.5bn in cash. This was quickly followed in May by Applied Materials’ proposed acquisition of Varian Semiconductor Equipment...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The US economy may be teetering on the brink of a double-dip recession; bond bears are predicting a spike in Treasury yields. But the story so far in 2011 has been one of European corporate borrowers continuing to flock to the dollar market. “Since the fall of Lehman Brothers, it has been a golden era for the dollar as a financing currency, but the question is whether it is going to last,” said Marco Baldini, head of European corporate syndicate at Barclays Capital.    Yankee bond...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Indian bond markets are feeling the pressure from central bank hawks. Acting most recently in May with a 50bp hike, the RBI has increased its repo rate by four percentage points over the past 12 months in a protracted battle to contain persistent headline inflation. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Indian government bond is nearly 100bp higher now than it was 12 months ago, rising to an annual high of around 8.4%. Consistently higher domestic funding costs provide strong...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Turkey’s local currency bond market is either an abject failure, or an exciting success, depending on the timescale in which you assess it. In 2010 there was TL1.85bn of issuance while in the first four months of 2011 issuance grew exponentially to TL4.7bn. However in the overall context of Turkey’s non-governmental borrowing activity, this is a mere drop in the ocean. Outstanding corporate bond issues in Turkey account for less than 1% of GDP, according to figures prepared by the...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. The devastating March 11 earthquake in Japan – the country’s strongest on record – shook the yen capital markets to the core. As a result, the yen credit market closed about 10 trading days earlier than the usual fiscal year-end finish in April. Corporate spreads took the biggest hit. Yen-denominated international paper generally also widened, although not so dramatically, with investors understanding underlying credit quality had not been damaged. Now, many expect Samurai...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Poland’s capital markets activity was heavily influenced by southern European economic woes last year, which had a profound effect on spreads for both southern and Central and Eastern European Eurobonds. With these problems in mind it focused its capital raising efforts on the US dollar markets, along with some domestic debt issuance. However, the sovereign did take advantage of a yield trough last autumn to launch a euro deal. It came to market in September with its first...

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To view the digital version of this report, please click here. On 6 April, the United Mexican States received such a favourable reaction from investors to a re-opening of its 2040s that it decided to raise US$1.01bn instead of the US$500m it had initially targeted. The issue was heavily over-subscribed and the book reached US$4.8bn, pricing at 101.358 to yield 5.95% or 134.6bp more than US Treasuries with a similar maturity. “There are two main reasons why the April deal was able to achieve such a favourable yield,” said Max Volkov, managing...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Following the Irish bailout in late 2010, many thought the increasing presence of the European Union, on behalf of the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility, might be relatively short lived. But with Portugal joining the list of sovereign borrowers requiring assistance, the EU and the EFSF combined would make the top 35 issuers by volume and is set to rise fast. The final terms of the Irish bail-outamounted to €85bn, with €17.5bn...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. In March, the US investment grade loan market proved its depth and resilience when AT&T announced its plans to acquire rival T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for a hefty sum of US$39bn. The March 20 announcement took the market by surprise. Only a few days previously a massive earthquake in Japan had set market nerves on edge. Even more surprising was the proposed financing package: a US$20bn bridge loan. The 18-month pledge for a 364-day loan was fully underwritten by financial...