In May Central China Real Estate, one of the Chinese mainland’s many property developers, proposed issuing Singapore dollar-denominated notes, to refinance a convertible bond due in August.
The proposed offer received a BB- rating from Standard & Poor’s, reflecting the company’s “increased debt leverage, growing competition in Henan province, and limited geographic diversity”, said the rating agency. “We assess the company’s business risk profile as ‘fair’ and its financial risk profile as ‘aggressive’.”
For many years before it materialised in meaningful scale, capital market practitioners anticipated the development of an Asian bond market that would reduce the region’s reliance on bank finance. Today the Asian bond market is well established. Morgan Stanley expects the size of the market to reach $1tn in three years and issuance in 2014 of $150bn.