bond markets
債券市場
A big number from Verizon
Verizon的大手筆
Companies are still taking advantage of low yields to raise debt
各公司仍在利用低收益率提高債務水平
Sep 14th 2013 |From the print edition
DEBT crisis? What debt crisis? The biggest corporate-bond issue ever was completed this week. Verizon Communications, an American telecoms group, issued a whopping $49 billion of bonds in order to finance the buy-out of Vodafone’s stake in its wireless operations. That shattered the previous record, Apple’s paltry $17 billion issue earlier this year.
債務危機?什么樣的債務危機?史上最大的企業債券發行本周完成了。一家美國電信集團Verizon通訊為了支付沃達豐持有的無線業務股權買斷費用,發行了高達490億美元的債券。
這打破了此前的紀錄,蘋果在今年早些時候發行了現在看來微不足道的170億美元的債券。
The scale of Verizon’s offering may be unprecedented, but its foray into the bond markets is anything but. In the first eight months of this year $1.4 trillion of corporate bonds were issued worldwide, according to Dealogic, a data provider, compared with $1.3 trillion in the same period of 2012. Firms have been keen to lock in long-term financing at low yields, particularly since borrowing costs started rising after the Federal Reserve hinted in May at slowing its asset purchases.
Verizon的發行規模可謂是前所未有的,但是這不是其首次嘗試債券市場了。根據數據提供商Dealogic的數據,今年前8個月世界范圍內有1.4萬億公司債券發行,2012年同期金額為1.3萬億。各公司一直熱衷于以低收益率參與長期融資,尤其是自從美聯儲五月暗示放緩其資產購買之后,借貸成本開始上升。
Oil and gas companies have been particularly enthusiastic issuers, according to Marcus Hiseman of Morgan Stanley, especially in the “Yankee” market where foreign businesses sell bonds, priced in dollars, mainly to American investors. Previously many foreign firms would issue debt in euros and swap the proceeds into dollars, but regulatory restrictions on banks make that much more expensive these days. This year 72% of investment-grade issuance has been in dollars, compared with 58% in 2009, according to Morgan Stanley.
據摩根士丹利的Marcus Hiseman表示,石油和天然氣公司一直是特別積極的發行者,尤其是在美國市場,外國公司主要向美國投資者售賣以美元計價的債券。此前,許多外國公司用歐元發行債券,之后將受益轉換成美元,但是對銀行的監管限制規定使得這種做法在現在變得很昂貴。根據摩根士丹利的數據,今年72%的投資級發行都是以美元計價,相比之下去年只有58%。
If companies fear that bond yields are set to rise (meaning that bond prices will fall), why are investors so keen to buy? There was plenty of demand to absorb the Verizon issue, for instance: orders reportedly reached $100 billion. One reason is that corporate bonds offer a spread (excess interest rate) over government bonds that is still attractive in historical terms. The average yield on ten-year investment-grade debt is 3.5%, compared with just 2.95% on Treasury bonds of the same maturity. The sheer size of the Verizon issue required it to be more generous towards investors, as did its BBB+ rating from Standard & Poor’s, towards the bottom end of the investment-grade category. The firm offered a yield of over 5% on its ten-year bonds, for example, more than two percentage points above the equivalent Treasury issue.
如果企業擔心債券收益率上升(這意味著債券價格會下跌),那么投資者為何這么熱衷于購買呢?買入Verizon發行的債券需求很大,例如,據報道訂單達到了1000億美元。一個原因是企業債券相比國債提供一個差額(更高的利率),從歷史上看,仍然具有吸引力。十年期投資級債券的平均收益率是3.5%,而相同期限的國債收益率只有2.95%。Verizon發行債券的規模如此之大,這要求其對投資者提供更高的收益,標準普爾對其作出的評級是BBB+,是投資級類別的最低等級。該公司十年期債券的收益率超過5%,比國債的收益率高了兩個百分點。
Many central banks, which hold a large part of their reserves in dollars, remain enthusiastic buyers of corporate debt. In addition, many investors in corporate debt are specialist fund managers who aim to beat the benchmark specific to their asset class, points out Paul Young of Citigroup; they care more about whether they pick the right bonds, as they are able to hedge the underlying interest-rate risk.
許多持有大量美元儲蓄存款的中央銀行仍然熱衷于購買企業債券。此外,花旗集團的樣子剛指出,許多企業債券的投資者是專業的基金經理,他們的目標是打破特定資產類別的基準,他們有能力抵消相關利率風險,所以他們更關心是否挑選了正確的債券。
The influx of money nonetheless causes some to worry. The corporate-bond market is a lot less liquid than it used to be, thanks largely to the effect of regulations on the willingness of banks to hold large inventories of corporate debt. This could cause a problem should bond investors want to sell their holdings in a rush. For the moment, however, that does not seem likely. Corporate balance-sheets look strong and the default rate over the past 12 months, even on speculative debt, was just 2.9%, according to Moody’s, another ratings agency.
資金潮仍然引起了一些擔憂。企業債券市場比起以前流動性變差了,這在很大程度上是由于對銀行持有大量企業債券所出臺的法規限制。這可能會導致債券投資者想要急于出售其所持債券。然而,就目前而言,看起來不是這樣。企業資產負債表看起來很漂亮,根據另一評級機構穆迪的數據,在過去的12個月,就算是投機性債務的違約率也只有2.9%。