IFR Asia Dim Sum Bonds Roundtable 2012: Participants

IFR: Welcome. Has the Dim Sum bond lost some of its appeal? Over the last 18 months, Dim Sum bonds have been horrible investments, haven’t they? Angus Hui: I wouldn’t say that, but there have been some interesting developments. We’ve gone from expectations of 3%–4% appreciation a year ago to pretty much flat against the dollar. Clearly, some investors got into Dim Sum bonds purely on expectations of currency appreciation rather than for the bond side. So, certainly some of that at interest has been reduced. However, we also saw a huge...

IFR: John, when you came to market with your two deals, were they individually rated? John Ho: Well, ratings weren’t really the point. The first one was done by HSBC and, really, I think the terms were already set before we asked the rating agency to rate it. HSBC felt confident it could distribute that amount of money. The key really is the supply and demand. I mean, for people like Angus as an investor, they see it as low risk; they see it as appreciation on the renminbi. From our side, the way I look at it is the tenor, the cost, the size....

IFR: We mentioned swaps before. Is there a sweet spot there? Are there any limits? Michael Lam: The swap market is developing, but, to get to a point that can support a large number of international borrowers, the pool just needs to be larger. Right now, Deutsche Bank would be very happy to provide a deliverable swap between dollars and CNH out to five years, and selectively out to 10 years. However, the bulk of the liquidity is focused on one to three years. Certainly, the market is there for Rmb1bn, but that’s not too big. “Hong Kong can be...