The world’s best borrowers in 2006
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| Hopson became the first property company to tap the Chinese high-yield sector |
The relative lack of depth in Asia’s debt capital markets means that the best borrower in the corporate sector often emerges on the basis of a specific deal rather than a track record of issuance over the 12-month period. So it is with this year’s winner but the award is no less deserved for it. Hopson Development Holdings is a mainland Chinese property development company focused on the residential sector that has quickly gained a reputation in the market for strong management and high standards of corporate governance and transparency. Influential institutional investors – Temasek Holdings and Tiger Global LP are both shareholders – lend credibility to the company’s impressive track record. These attributes all made a major contribution to the success of Hopson’s maiden bond offering, launched in November 2005 with Credit Suisse as sole book runner.
Hopson did not open the high-yield market for Chinese corporations but it was the first domestic property developer to tap the market and it has successfully raised the standards for high-yield issuance from China.