League Tables

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. 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 dominate the funding landscape remain largely the same as they did then. Concerns about the...

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To view the digital version of this report, please click here. In an increasingly interconnected and globalised world, Asia cannot escape the effects of any crises in other regions. The eurozone crisis has been a huge overhang on financial markets and the resulting squeeze in liquidity has hurt many borrowers with the cost of funding rising to prohibitive levels. However, equity valuations have also taken a beating, and there are opportunities for bargain hunting that could lead to more M&A activity. “Asian M&A volumes have seen a resurgence in...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Only US$261bn of syndicated loans had been completed in EMEA by the end of May – 37% lower than the same period of 2011 – when US$415bn of deals were logged. The slump shows that companies are changing their funding strategy as the bank market gets less predictable.       Banks need to boost capital ratios by raising equity, selling businesses or deleveraging and lending less is the easiest option. Borrowers know that loans will be less freely available and have been diversifying by...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. In May the European Financial Stability Facility took the unusual step of using an auction process for its €4bn May 2017 2% issue. While the use of auctions is nothing new for sovereigns – indeed, the syndicated market has all but been consigned to history as far as some are concerned – it was the first time a European agency had used the tool for something other than short-dated funding. The auction produced a successful outcome, with the bid-to-cover ratio at 2.7 on the €960m...

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 RMBS and CMBS have started to outperform the...

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 issuers with a string of ugly high coupons and high...

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 the headlines are. “With the Projek Lebuhraya...

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 bonds by capital market wags, more than 100 other...

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 covered bonds. “The introduction of bail-ins is...

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 supply in Europe mean cash has been accumulating on...

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 investment-grade companies,” said Jason Lee, global...