Western Europe
Best sovereign issuer:
Italy
Best supranational borrower:
European Investment Bank
When you are a supranational hitting the market frequently and in large volume, it is difficult to be consistently successful. For many in the market, the European Investment Bank is the one that has done the best job of this in the past 12 months.
With overall funding requirements of e47 billion in 2004, the EIB can't afford to get it wrong too often. "They do have large borrowing requirements, so they need to ensure that each deal is received well and in that the EIB have been very successful," says Mark Wheatcroft, executive director, fixed-income syndicate, at UBS. "They know that investors need a range of maturities and currencies to trade and they are very vigilant in listening to the banks, monitoring the market and are realistic about the pricing of their bonds."
But the EIB is also sufficiently nimble to respond quickly to opportunities that open up in the market, which gives it at an advantage over its peer group, particularly this year when volatility has meant the market has kept opening and then closing again.