January 18, 2018

Reg S bond market: The rise of Asia’s own dollar bond market

The growth of the Reg S bond market has been one of the defining trends of the Asian capital markets in recent years. Driven by the seemingly unstoppable rise of Asian wealth – especially deep-pocketed Chinese investors – US dollar bond sales in the region no longer depend on the participation of US institutions.

Dollar debt issuance swelled to a record US$376bn in 2017 in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, up 45% on the previous year.

IFR gathered a panel of market specialists to discuss the Reg S phenomenon in Hong Kong late last year. The panelists included the Export-Import Bank of Korea, CLP Power Holdings, JP Morgan, Fidelity International, Clifford Chance and National Australia Bank.

Panelists include Lorna Greene National Australia Bank, Jessica Gu Export-Import Bank of Korea, Francis Ho CLP Holdings, Bryan Collins Fidelity International, Alex LLoyd Clifford Chance , Marc Lewell JP Morgan and Steve Garton, Editor IFR Asia.

 

The panel debated how far the Reg S market would go, how sustainable it would be to rising US interest rates, reliability on China and whether a more concentrated, regional investor base poses liquidity risks for Asian borrowers in the future.

For full details, see the attached document: