Asia's worst-performing sovereign bonds find a buyer in ICICI Prudential

Yields on the benchmark 10-year debt climbed to a two-year high of 7.82% last month

The seven-month slide in India’s sovereign bonds has convinced the state-owned banks, the biggest holders of debt, to remain on the sidelines.
 

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co., one of the country’s largest private insurers, sees things very differently. With yields recently nearing 8 per cent, Manish Kumar, chief investment officer at the firm, says it’s time to go long.
 

“A yield of 7.7 per cent to 7.8 per cent is a good yield to invest into,” Kumar, who oversees the equivalent of $22 billion of assets, said in an interview in Mumbai. “While the concerns around the fiscal deficit are