The People's Republic of China returned to the international bond markets for the first time since May 2001 yesterday Wednesday with a $1.5 billion twin tranche issue that squeezed every last basis point out of the market.
Eschewing the temptation to built up a wildly inflated order book that would close many times oversubscribed, the sovereign decided instead to pursue the tightest price it could without losing a truly global investor base. And it appeared to have succeeded with the help of a huge domestic back-stop bid, an improving credit story and limited outstanding supply.
But few were prepared to argue the bonds held any relative value at all except in...
