'Primary bond issuance dips 48.6% to USD 10.8 billion in Q1'

Primary bond issuances by corporates plunged by a whopping 48.6 per cent to USD 10.8 billion in the January-March period, down from the record USD 21 billion a year ago, says a report.
Domestic companies tapping the offshore US dollar- denominated bond markets in Q1 of this year totaled USD 2 billion, a decline of 64 per cent, as against USD 5.7 billion in the first quarter of last year, according a Thomson Reuters report on the debt capital market.
The majority of the bond proceeds were issued by companies from the financials sector with 69.7 per cent market share, or USD 7.5 billion.

The consumer staples sector came stood second and captured 12.1 per cent of the market share with USD 1.3 billion worth of proceeds, a 37.1 per cent growth compared to the proceeds during the first quarter of 2013.
The rupee-denominated bond proceeds amounted to Rs 53,090 crore a 36.5 per cent decline compared to the record-high quarterly level attained during last year at Rs 83,660 crore.
Total proceeds also saw a quarterly decline of 16.4 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2013 when it stood at Rs 63,480 crore, the report said.

In the rupee-denominated bond markets, financials sector accounted for 62.8 per cent with total proceeds of Rs 33,360 crore from 79 new issues.

The consumer staples sector, with Rs 8,000 crore in proceeds, grew 53.8 per cent from the first quarter of 2013, and accounted for 15.1 per cent of the market share.
The report said Asia Pacific's aggregate local currency bond volume amounted to USD 131.4 billion so far this year, down 29.1 per cent from the last year period.
The rupee-denominated bonds accounted for 6.6 per cent of Asia's local currency bond market share while Chinese yuan captured the biggest market share with 39.1 per cent, the report said.
Axis Bank topped the ranking for underwriting bonds issued domestically with related proceeds of USD 1.7 billion from 35 deals or 15.9 per cent of all the bond offerings.

According to the report, capital raisings through bonds generated a fees worth USD 14.4 million, a 61.9 per cent decline from the comparative period last year.