The panel addresses vexing questions of investor interest:
Mark Leahy (head of debt origination and fixed income syndicate, Asia ex-Japan, Nomura) is asked: has a reduction in the rate of appreciation of the yuan reduced retail appetite for dim sum bonds?
A major driver of investor participation has been the currency play - an expectation of yuan appreciation versus the US dollar and the Hong Kong dollar.
That rate of appreciation has lessened. At the same time, new issuance is generating increasing levels of interest and participation from institutional investors.
This can be seen in the lengthening maturities of new deals - for example, China Development Bank issued a 15-year bond in January - the longest so far. Some investors are less interested in dim sum bonds due to a slower pace of currency appreciation, but in their place is a broader range of investors with very different investment criteria. The market is maturing.
Meanwhile, private-bank participation remains high, with those firms buying as much as 20 per cent of recent new dim sum issues. These banks are also actively trading dim sum bonds in the secondary market.
The market outlook remains strong and, as it matures, investors are willing to look at new, often foreign credits such as America Movil (which last month became the first Latin American entity to issue a dim sum bond).