Inaugural Southeast Asia Debt Investor Forum

Event Highlights

FinanceAsia and AsianInvestor’s inaugural Southeast Asia Debt Investor Forum ran on 20th September at The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Gathering the region’s most influential investors and asset managers, the Forum attracted over 275 delegates and generated a lot of discussion.

Over the course of the morning, the following sessions offered key insights into market trends and investor perspective, including: The market outlook for 2013 and beyond, The future of sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt, Bond market innovation – covered bonds and the growth of local currency bond markets.

Speaking during the third panel entitled ‘The appetite for and risk management of emerging market debt’, Rajeev de Mello, head of Asian fixed income and co-head of emerging market bonds at Schroders Investment Manager, remarked, “in light of the policies we’ve seen from central banks recently, we’ve increased the risk of all fixed-income portfolios; we’ve moved more into corporate and EM debt and down the rating scale. We’ve also increased our currency exposures”. Over the course of the same panel, Tim Jagger, SVP – Portfolio Manager & Head of Fixed Income – Asia for Aviva Investors, commented that ‘Asian and global high-yield bonds have been performing well and that is likely to continue’. In addition, Jagger emphasised that his firm will also continue to “move down the credit scale and increase risk”.

Demand for corporate debt, one of the biggest trends over the last eighteen months, was widely discussed during the forum. Owi Ruivivar, Senior Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income EM Debt at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, remarked that ‘demand has and is increasingly coming from pension funds or from insurance companies’.

Equally, the afternoon’s sessions generated a lot of discussion, including our keynote presentation by Ms. Loto Srinaita Ginting, Director of Government Securities at the Indonesia Debt Management Office. It was an honour to host Ms. Ginting and listen as she gave valuable insight into the DMO’s issuances over the last two years and reasoning behind its strategy. Other sessions that featured over the course of the afternoon included: Addressing global risks in a FI portfolio, Funding infrastructure, and The institutional investor perspective.

During the latter session, Kevin Talbot, CIO – Fixed Income at Aviva Investors, commented ‘I have to take my hat off to MAS in their efforts to help grow the domestic market – a market that can perhaps be considered better than Hong Kong”. Gregor Carle, Investment Director, Fixed Income and Investment Solutions at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, emphasised that ‘transparency drives us into a market, if there are constraints then that might hinder the amount we commit. It’s important that regulators act with conviction and clearly lay out the “the rules of engagement.”

Overall, the Forum was a huge success, especially in light of it being an inaugural event, and for that we would like to thank our sponsors: DBS, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, Latham and Watkins, Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and exhibitor S&P Capital IQ. We would also like to thank all of our panelists who provided key insights into the regional and global funding opportunities and challenges apparent to corporations.

We look forward to returning next year and welcoming you to the forum!

Hayleigh Davies
Senior Conference Producer
Haymarket Financial Media

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