Portugal’s sovereign borrowing agency rebuilds bridges with wary investor base

For the government, in particular, intensive overseas marketing has been an urgent priority as it has worked to rebuild an investor base that has undergone a ratings-driven transformation over the past 12 to 18 months. “After the downgrade from S&P at the start of 2012 we lost a large part of our classic investor base, which was the core European institutions,” says João Moreira Rato, chief executive of the IGCP, Portugal’s debt management office. “With French and German accounts selling, the priority when I joined the IGCP in June 2012 was to find an investor base that was less ratings sensitive.