Perpetual bonds were long a sideshow to Asia’s corporate bond market, offering companies occasional and sometimes expensive sources of capital that helped ease concerns among lenders or credit ratings analysts. But since the start of 2017, perpetual bond issuance has taken centre stage.
Corporations in Asia ex-Japan had raised an eye-popping $7.36 billion this year as of Monday morning according to Dealogic data, already closing in on the $7.82 billion they issued throughout 2016. That's despite the fact 2016 represented a record year for corporate perpetual issuance in the region.
It may be only days before corporate perpetuals set a new volume record in Asia ex-Japan....