Japan Finance Corp for Municipal Enterprises JFM, a state owned agency that lends to municipal and provincial governments in Japan, yesterday issued a Y20 billion $190 million 10 year index linked bond, becoming the first non-sovereign issuer of index linked bonds in the region.
What makes this bond interesting is that as the inflationary environment around the world starts to worsen, so investors are looking for ways to hedge their portfolios. In Japan, as in many countries in Asia, there are few ways of hedging against short term interest rate rises and inflation, says Ayumu Fukuzawa, head of debt capital markets at CSFB in Tokyo. Although yen interest rates will...
