Best borrowers of 2000

It's been a tough year for many borrowers in the international capital markets. Corporate issuers in particular have fallen quickly from grace, having been the market's darlings a year ago. Now fixed income investors across the world are increasingly risk-averse. Certain sectors of the primary markets, US high yield for example, are very difficult to access. In response to these troubles, many of those borrowers that bankers and investors have nominated to be awarded for their efforts in the past 12 months have reverted to a strategy first made popular by Fannie Mae two years ago. They are striving to produce large, liquid benchmark issues that will at least give investors the comfort that they can easily trade in and out.

Where Fannie Mae, our borrower of the year, has led, others, such as Ford, our best corporate borrower, and even smaller issuers such as Brazil, our best sovereign, and IADB, best supranational, have followed. Antony Currie, Anja Helk, Peter Lee, Charles Piggott and Christina White report on the best corporate, sovereign, financial and securitization borrowers from Europe, central and eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Best borrower

: Fannie Mae

Best sovereign borrower: Brazil

Best corporate borrower: Ford

Best supranational borrower: IADB

Best European sovereign borrower: Greece

Best central and eastern European sovereign: Poland

Best central Asian sovereign: Kazakhstan

Best European corporate: Vodafone AirTouch

Best Asian sovereign: Korea Development Bank

Best Asian corporate: Asia Pulp & Paper

Best Latin American corporate: CTC

Best Euromarket high-yield issuer: Level 3 Communications