While the Asian bond market kicked off the year with an almost crazy amount of new issuance, the number of convertible bonds has been significantly more modest. So far only five deals have come to market and the largest one raised only $250 million. One reason for the discrepancy is that CB issuers are not as concerned as the issuers of straight bonds about trying to lock in low interest rates ahead of the rate hikes that are expected globally at some point this year for them a high equity valuation is much more important.
And with stock prices generally down so far this year, the incentive to come to market isn't really there --...
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