High-yield bonds back in styleThe high-yield bond market, consisting of non-investment-grade bonds offering above-market returns to compensate for higher investment risk, has begun to pick up again after nearly drying up in the first half due to Covid-19 impact, says Asia Plus Securities (ASP). "High-yield bond issuance dropped significantly in April, and many issuers could not completely sell their bonds, while corporate bonds rated at A- and above did not experience any impact," said Yodrudee Santatikul, executive vice-president for capital markets at ASP. Bonds rated A- to A+ were 92% sold, and bonds rated BBB- to BBB+ were 97.9% sold. For high-yield bonds, the issuance size was 57.7% of total offering size. The selling portion for high-yield bonds fell to 37.6% in April but picked up to 87.7% in May, and the bonds were fully subscribed in June.

Source: Bangkok Post July 16, 2020 22:30 UTC