Singapore's bond issuance down by 25.8%

The Singapore-domiciled bond issuance in 2011 reached US$14.9 billion, a 25.8 per cent drop after 2010's annual record volume of US$20.0 billion.

According to the Thomson Reuters' Singapore 2011 Debt Capital Market Review, during the fourth quarter primary bond offerings from Singaporean companies saw 15 new issues raising US$2.4 billion - 37.4 per cent below quarter three 2011 issuance of US$3.9 billion, and the lowest quarter volume since the first quarter of 2009 at US$215.8 million.

Meanwhile, offshore bond offerings in G3 currencies of US$, Euro, and Yen from Singaporean issuers witnessed growth, as 13 issues generated US$3.6 billion in proceeds, a 31.4 per cent rise over the annual proceeds in 2010.

DBS Group Holdings remains the top bookrunner for Singaporean bond underwriting this year, with related proceeds of US$3.7 billion from 30 issues, despite the 8.6 decrease in market share points in 2010.

According to estimates from Thomson Reuters/ Freeman Consulting Co, Singapore bonds underwriting fees totaled US$41.1 million so far in 2011, a 48.7 per cent decline from the comparable period in 2010.

DBS, with US$9.1 million, accounted for a 22.1 per cent walletshare despite the 61.3 per cent decline in underwriting fees this year and the 7.2 per cent drop in market share compared to 2010.

Borrowers from the financial sector were the active issuers of Singapore-domiciled bond offerings so far in 2011.

UOB issued the largest deal of a US$793.7 million investment grade debt, bringing bond capital raisings from the sector to US$6.2 billion, a 40.3 per cent decrease over last year's US$10.4 billion total annual proceeds.

Driven by at least four of this year's top Singaporean bond issues, the financial sector captured 42.0 per cent of the nation's market share.

Government & Agencies and Real Estate accounted for 21.8 per cent and 11.7 per cent market share, respectively.
 

For the source of the soptry, click here.