| On paper it didn't look good. The economic results were poor, Moody's had downgraded the country's sovereign debt rating and, at what looked like exactly the wrong moment, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates. But in April, Thailand managed to launch a US$600 million yankee bond which was actually oversubscribed. Its success followed a series of roadshows in the us presented by finance minister and deputy prime minister Amnuay Viravan, and Bank of Thailand governor Rerngchai Marakanonda. Their mission, to restore Thailand's flagging image to investors, did not look easy. "There were a lot of sceptics," admits Stephen Taran, managing director at Lehman Brothers, which lead-managed the issue with Salomon Brothers. Amnuay and Rerngchai opted for honesty as the best policy. According to Philip Bennett, Salomon's head of international capital markets, their approach was: "We have a lot of problems, we know what they are, and we think they may get worse before they get better." "There was no attempt at a whitewash," confirms Bennett. And the frankness paid off, with $1 billion of orders - scaled down to $600 million for the 10-year 7.75% paper, which yielded 90 basis points (bp) over the benchmark US treasury bond. |