A Guide to Asian High Yield Bonds: Financing Growth Enterprises(Wiley Finance Series)

'A book on high yield, written by bond market professionals, is exactly what issuers have been waiting for. The elaborations on structures and covenant packages are crystal clear and help to navigate through the intricacies of the product' - Arsjad Rasjid, President Director, Indika Inti Energi.'This book provides a valuable overview of the market. In particular, it offers in-depth analysis of the buy-side for Asian high yield and a detailed guide to structuring and executing transactions. We recommend it to any potential issuer' - Charles Chu, CFO, Agile Property Holdings Ltd.'This guide to the market provides a clear overview of high yield as a non-dilutive form of long term capital and serves as a useful reference material to all Asian growth enterprises. It is an easy to read and comprehensive reference work that will be of practical benefit to market users' - Roland To, Director - Strategic Planning, Galaxy Entertainment Group.'We believe, as a firm, that out of contagion and chaos come opportunities. As the financial markets regain their footing after the subprime-induced credit crisis, we believe investors will find exciting opportunities in non-investment grade credit among other asset classes. "A Guide to Asian High Yield Bonds" will help investors get a handle on the high yield sector in Asia, which we are confident will hold great potential for investors going forward' - Brian Baker, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Asia, Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO).'A timely and well-researched addition to the finance literature. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Asian high yield' - Professor Moorad Choudhry, Department of Economics, London Metropolitan University. 'The Asian high yield market has grown at a rapid pace in the past few years. A new reference book to track the developments is a useful and timely addition for all market participants' - Geoffrey King, Director, PMA Investment Advisors Ltd. 'Given the relative newness of the Asian high yield market and inexperience of most regional investors and issuers with high yield credit instruments, a reference book on the market should prove invaluable for illuminating the attractiveness and merits of the asset class' - Eugene Kim, Chief Investment Officer, Tribridge Investment Partners Ltd., Hong Kong.

Table of Contents:
Why high yield's time has come in Asia Setting the scene - how Asia recovered from the Crisis and how strong economies and stable politics helped enable the rebirth of high yield - drivers for the 'new generation' of issuance - refinancing - more flexibility than secured bank loans with maintenance covenants - frequent unavailability of bank loans - macro drivers on the supply side: China's real estate revolution and Indonesia's natural resources boom - the demand side - globalization of investor portfolios - private equity sponsorship as a driver for issuance and innovation - a more resilient marketplaceAn overview of the high yield bond market The origins of 'junk' in the US - the role of Michael Milken - the development of the US market - LBOs drive the development of high yield in Europe - the first generation of 'true' high yield in Asia in the early 1990s - differentiating 'true' high yield from emerging markets bonds - the Asian Financial Crisis, 1997-1998 - the negative impact of post-Crisis restructurings on investor confidence in Asia - Asian high yield's renaissance, 2003-2007 - Chinese issuers become a mainstay of the market - structural innovation - tight structures rebuild investors' confidence in Indonesia - the future for Asian high yieldWhy issue high yield bonds? What's in a name? - Overview of issuance drivers - Technology, Media and Telecoms: financial sponsors, capital expenditure and the importance of the US investor base - Chinese real estate: issuers' lack of alternatives for land acquisition - Indonesia: scramble for natural resources assets creates a 'new' asset class of highly structured high yield transactions - the broader appeals of the high yield market - cost of capital - issuers' perspectivesAsian high yield investors The asset class in perspective - Asian high yield is still an embryonic market - the golden age for credit, 2003-2007 - the hedge fund industry takes off in Asia and global funds chase Asian assets - Asian market conditions and the challenges they pose for hedge funds - 'real money' investors' participation in Asian high yield - the rise of the regional bid and the Reg S-only market - growth in private banking investment in high yield - motivations for buying Asian high yield - investors' analysis of high yield issues - valuation methods and challenges - principals' track records and investors' selectivity - hedging instruments for Asian high yield investors - trading Asian high yield - looking ahead: has the balance of power shifted in investors' favour? - investors' perspectives Structuring and transacting high yield bonds Leverage as a driver of corporate growth - debt product innovation - structuring high yield bonds: a detailed guide - subordination - restricted subsidiaries - incurrence versus maintenance covenants - covenant interpretation and applications - analysis of typical high yield covenants - disclosure for high yield bonds - the offering memorandum - marketing, pricing and distributing Asian high yield bonds - underwriters, bookrunners and lead managers - marketing new issues and the bookbuilding process - theoretical analysis of pricing high yield - distribution and allocation strategy - the credit ratings and ratings advisory processThe rise of the Asian high yield private placement market Overview of the opaque private placement market - formats and structures - supply side analysis - the private placement issuance process - investors' motivations for buying Asian high yield private placements - outlook for the marketWhere next for Asian high yield? Assessment of the progress made by Asian high yield since its 2003 'rebirth' - boxed section on the subprime-induced credit crisis and its impact on Asian high yield - investors likely to revert to more traditional forms of credit analysis and prefer strong economic fundamentals and compelling credit stories to 'black box' financial engineering - risks to Asian fundamentals from reliance on exports - modest growth of domestic consumption - Asia's poor distribution and pricing of credit risk, exacerbated by the regional liquidity glut - the need for obstacles to issuance and market development to be removed - the parallel requirement to foster a credit culture in the region - is the credit cycle turning?

About the Author :
Florian Schmidt is Managing Director and Head of Debt Capital Markets, Asia, with ING Wholesale Banking, based in Singapore. He has been professionally involved in Asia's debt capital markets for 15 years. During that period he has originated and executed a large number of bond issues across Asia, including high grade, high yield, public, private, G3 and local currency offerings, some of which have been recognized with awards. Notable within the emerging markets and high yield context were, amongt others, a US$125m floating rate note for Bank Mandiri in 2001, representing the return of post-Crisis Indonesia to the international debt capital markets; a US$150m Euro MTN Programme plus takedown for the Trade & Development Bank of Mongolia in 2007, the first ever from that country; and a complex US$250million senior notes issue for Indika Inti Energi in 2007, which was named Best High Yield Bond 2007 by FinanceAsia. Florian is the author of Asia's Credit Markets-From High-Yield to High-Grade, a reference work published by Wiley & Sons (Asia) in 2004. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Munster, Germany. Adam Harper is a Vice President in ING's Asian Debt Capital Markets team, based in Hong Kong. Before joining ING in November 2006, he was the Asia Editor of EuroWeek, covering the Asian high yield, high grade and local currency markets as well as having editorial responsibility for other capital markets coverage. At EuroWeek, he oversaw the publication of Asia's High Yield Bond Markets: Financing Asia's Growing Economies, a handbook on high yield in the region, and developed the newspaper's Asian capital markets coverage through the creation of EuroWeek Asia, a dedicated Asian publication within the EuroWeek global edition. He has been a regular moderator of debt capital markets discussions at Euromoney conferences across Asia and elsewhere. Adam graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001 with an honors degree in English.

Review :
"...a vigorous, thorough and readable introduction to an important subject." Euroweek Friday 11 July 2008