“The action in Asia is very much on the investor side,” says Stephen Williams, head of IBF at HSBC. “Just about every deal that comes to the market is Asia-focused, mainly at the retail sector. They’re very attracted to the product for yield reasons and hence tend to price hybrid debt more aggressively versus senior debt than the institutional investor base.”
Asia’s institutional investors are indeed discerning; they demand the comfort of step-up structures absent on many of the retail-focused issues to provide the security against issues being called, and thus yield the necessary returns.
Access this research
Enter your work email address to sign in or check whether your organisation already has access to Euromoney.
