Just two years ago a corporate such as Ford Motor Credit would have needed to issue a plethora of diVerent bonds across a variety of markets to meet its substantial financing needs. Now, though, less than a year after launching its global landmark securities programme, Ford has already raised $18.6 billion with just three issues.
The inspiration behind this move came from Fannie Mae, and to a lesser extent Freddie Mac, the two US agencies that since 1998 have been issuing large, super-liquid jumbo global bonds. And Ford has no problem acknowledging that: "Clearly we modelled the programme on what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been doing with their benchmark programmes," says Neil Schloss, director of Wnancial strategy at Ford. "Although we stop short of publishing a formal schedule as that is rather too conWning for an FRN borrower."
Instead, Ford simply states that it will launch between two and four deals oV the programme each year as the main means of hitting its borrowing targets, which last year were $10 billion, although $12 billion was raised in the end. That does not mean that Ford will simply launch an issue at will.