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Ford is on the pioneer trail again. "Just as in the 1920s Ford paved the way for mass car production, so now it is paving the way for a new era in the corporate-bond market," says Fares Noujeam, co-head of general capital markets at Bear Stearns. He is referring to the most recent issue for Ford Motor Credit, the financial arm of the US vehicle manufacturer: an astonishingly large four-tranche $8.6 billion bond launched on July 8.
The issue is the first deal to emerge from a new benchmark programme called Global Landmark Securities (GlobLS), which represents the first attempt by a corporate issuer to replicate the liquidity and transparency of issuance programmes from US agency issuers such as Fannie Mae.
Under GlobLS, Ford has committed itself to issue from two to four times a year in transactions of $3 billion or greater, giving investors a guarantee of issuance after the recent turmoils.