Global economic turmoil takes its toll on Asia Pac debt issuances

For the first nine months of 2011, Asia-Pacific debt issuance at US$448.1 billion slipped 0.5% from the same period last year. With global uncertainty, third quarter volume declined 42.4% to US$109.3 billion from 2Q 2011 which was the largest quarterly volume on record (US$189.2 billion).

China-domiciled borrowers accounted for 30.7% market share, with proceeds amounting to US$137.7 billion, down 7% from the comparable period in 2010. South Korea bond offerings totaled US$94.4 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year, and registered 21.1% of market share, followed by Australia (20.2%) and India-based borrowers (8.6%).

High-yield bonds from Asia Pacific-domiciled borrowers saw a record first nine months volume with a significant two-fold increase this year at US$17.8 billion – surpassing last year’s record volume (US$14.6 billion).

Investment-grade bonds accounted for bulk of the region’s total proceeds with 79.1% market share and pushed corporate bonds volume to reached US$374.9 billion this year. The region also witnessed the largest year-to-date volume since 2007 for securitized bonds with US$25.1 billion.
HSBC took top spot, with related proceeds of US$25.0 billion from 211 new issues.