Anchor orders offset volatility

摘要

Three unrated Asian issuers leaned heavily on individual investors and Chinese banks to sell dollar bonds last week, defying expectations that only high-grade, repeat issuers would be able to access credit in volatile international markets. China energy reserve and chemicals group, hsin chong construction and honc kong AIRLINES issued a combined US$730m in a week that had only two viable days to price debt. The trio also faced competition from investment-grade borrowers, such as Export-Import Bank of India, Ping An Life Insurance and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. However, unlike these better-known issuers, which saw global investors oversubscribe heavily to their deals, the unrated issuers barely covered their books. It also required anchor orders from private banks and Chinese lenders to get them across the finish line.