Issuers are taking advantage of the low interest rates to boost cash buffers, with Asian borrowers (particularly China) selling record bond volumes close to USD40bn in July. The Fed extended most of its emergency lending programs to the end of the year, lowering the cost of debt for struggling corporates and further compressing yields for USD bonds, boosting demand for Asian USD yields. Expect our local issuers to follow suit in new bond issues in the coming weeks.
Key economic releases for the week
Monday, 3 August 2020: US Manufacturing PMI, China PMI, Singapore PMI
Wednesday, 5 August 2020: Singapore Retail Sales YoY
Friday, 7 August 2020: US Change in Nonfarm Payrolls
Past week: Key events
Asia bond markets picked up in the week with Chinese real estate developers active in the primary markets, registering USD2.47bn in volume. The sector contributed 25.8% of the week’s total issuance volume.
Metro Holdings Ltd responded to SGX queries on its debt repayment abilities. The group has S$145.2mn of Revolving Credit Facilities (RCF) as short-term borrowings and intends to use its S$349.4mn of free cash and unutilized committed/uncommitted RCFs to repay the RCF, while earmarking cash returns from its investment portfolio or divestments to repay the S$150mn bond maturing in October 2021.
ARA LOGOS Logistics Trust released its 1H20 results. Occupancy remained stable at 97% with interest coverage at 3.6x and aggregate leverage at 40.4%. The trust’s stable performance is greatly attributed to its large MNC tenant base making up 54.5% of gross rental income.
