Читать книгу The Sterling Bonds and Fixed Income Handbook - Mark Glowrey - Страница 12

If organisations did not need to borrow money, there would be no bond market. Thus Polonius’ oft-quoted advice from Shakespeare’s Hamlet ^[1] to “Never a borrower or a lender be” holds little sway in the industry. Major borrows have huge and repeating funding needs and tap the deep and liquid bonds markets on a regular basis.

Issuers range from sovereign governments, through huge multinationals such as BP or Unilever down to the medium size companies – FTSE 250 midcaps such as GKN or Enterprise Inns. All are seeking competitive sources of medium-to-long term capital. Issue size will vary from around £10 million (perhaps the smallest size possible) through to a typical £100-250 million issue and up to £500 million or £1 billion. Such block-busters are known as benchmark issues, generally liquid and transparent and useful points of reference for establishing relative value in the market.

Smaller companies are generally underrepresented in the corporate bond markets. The minimum practical deal size and the associated costs make the market unsuitable for such borrowers, whose needs are better matched by venture capital or bank lending.