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Euromoney’s Best borrowers capture the most important names and trends seen across the globe during the past 12 months.

Deutsche Finanzagentur tops borrower ranking for seventh year; Pricing mechanism comes with volatility, says agency

By category

Overall

Incorporating - Best Borrowers and Fixed Income Research surveys:

Euromoney’s Best Borrowers survey brings you the most important names and trends from all over the world during the past 12 months. View a list of borrowers featured in this year's survey.

From sovereigns to non-bank financial institutions, the results of Euromoney’s Best Borrowers survey brings you the most important names and trends from all over the world during the past 12 months. Almost 1,000 investors were asked to nominate their top three borrowers in each category based on issuance strategy, credit quality and investor relations.

The hunt for yield has prompted a remarkable reversal of fortune for several sovereign borrowers in this year’s Euromoney survey. Those that have grasped the opportunity have reaped the rewards.

Euromoney asks investors to nominate the best fixed-income issuers globally and across a range of sectors and borrower types that matched categories in the research poll. The survey is therefore in two parts: best research house and best borrower.

Euromoney received votes from 1,107 investors nominating the best borrowers in the international debt capital markets, a ranking traditionally dominated by the highest-quality sovereign borrowers, supranationals and agencies and frequent corporate issuers. The biggest riser in the ranking this year, up to 11th position from 33rd last year, is the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which funds the debt issued to bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Euromoney’s Best borrowers capture the most important names and trends seen across the globe during the past 12 months.

Western Europe ’11 ’10 Entity Score 1 1 Germany (Deutsche Finanzagentur) 636 2 2 European Investment Bank 359 3 3 KfW Bank 334 4 4 France (Agence France Trésor) 320 5 5 BMW 319 6 9 Volkswagen 272 7 8 E.On 247 8 6 Telefónica 244 9 Netherlands (Agentschap van het Ministerie van Financien) 195 10 7 Daimler 184

Investors are taking a more enlightened stance towards Spanish Treasury funding.

Aftershock of European debt crisis hits supranationals.

Sovereigns ’11 ’10 Entity Score 1 1 Germany (Deutsche Finanzagentur) 623 2 2 France (Agence France Trésor) 314 3 4= Netherlands (Agentschap van het Ministerie van Financien) 188 4 9 Spain (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda) 156 5 7 Finland (Valtioneuvosto) 124 6 4= Italy (Departimento del Tesoro) 111 7 6 United Kingdom (UK Treasury-DMO) 104 8 3 United States (US Treasury-ODM) 91 9 12 Austria 68 10 15 Sweden 54 11 10 Belgium 42 12 16 Australia 37 13 17 Norway 33 14 13 Poland (Ministry of Finance) 32 15 18= Switzerland 26

Bond investors no longer put blind faith in top credit ratings – even the safest-seeming borrowers can expect searching questions. So the openness of such issuers as the Spanish sovereign has paid big dividends. It is a lesson even the most successful issuers are learning. Philip Moore reports.

Overall ’11 ’10 Entity Score 1 1 Germany (Deutsche Finanzagentur) 636 2 2 European Investment Bank 359 3 3 KfW Bank 334 4 4 France (Agence France Trésor) 320 5 5 BMW 319 6 8= Volkswagen 272 7 8= E.On 247 8 6 Telefónica 244 9 20= Netherlands (Agentschap van het Ministerie van Financien) 195 10 7 Daimler 184 11 47= Spain (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda) 161 12 13 Deutsche Telekom 151 13 11 France Telecom 146 14 17 EDF 134 15 Finland (Valtioneuvosto) 131 16 26 Allianz 129 17 12 Brazil (Tesouro Nacional) 122 18 39 Renault 121 19 20= Italy (Departimento del Tesoro) 119 20 28 Virgin Media 117 21 15 RWE 115 22 35= Wind Telecomunicazioni 114 23 22 United Kingdom (UK Treasury-DMO) 110 24= 18 Fiat 109 24= 32 Enel 109 24= Continental 109 27 25 Axa 106 28= 38 Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg 105 28= Siemens 105 30 27 KPN 102 31 47= Munich Re 100 32 19 Iberdrola 99 33 29 Vodafone 98 34= 30= Casino Guichard-Perrachon 95 34= 40 GDF Suez 95 36 41= PSA Peugeot Citroen 94 37 14 United States (US Treasury-ODM) 91 38 45= Gazprom 88 39= World Bank 86 39= 30= Turkey (Mailye Bankanligi) 86 39= 16 Poland (Ministry of Finance) 86 42 Russia 82 43 General Electric Finance 79 44 UPC 76 45 35= Heidelberg Cement 74 46 European Financial Stability Facility 72 47= 34 Tesco 71 47= Cades 71 49 10 General Electric 69 50= Austria 68 50= 45= Eurohypo 68

Overall

People like to drive its vehicles. They want to buy its bonds. And increasingly, in Germany, they choose to bank with BMW as well.

THE WORLD’S THREE best borrowers, according to a survey of more than 1,700 fixed-income investors worldwide, are among the biggest issuers in the market.

The turbulent markets of the past two years have provided a unique challenge to debt issuers that can never be closed out of the market. Clive Horwood asked four of the world’s leading borrowing officials how they have maintained access throughout the crisis. From cooperative bonds to building their own banks, the best issuers continue to innovate.

Although E.On is one of the best-known utilities in Europe, it went five years without issuing a major bond in the capital markets. All that was to change in the middle of 2007, when it announced a €30 billion investment initiative, the financing for which needed to be raised by 2010. "The euro market was closed for much of 2008 – it was a really difficult year. Sometimes the market was only open for a few days at a time," says Verena Volpert, head of finance at E.On.