Thailand’s ministry of finance has announced that a total of 15 foreign entities, including a number of export credit agencies (ECAs), are permitted to issue baht-denominated bonds or debentures in the Thai market. The selected institutions have until December 31 to issue the bonds, with the issue amount of 3,500mn baht each or 52,500mn baht in total.
The following entities are now allowed to enter the domestic bond market: Agence Francaise de Developpement, Cargill, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Rabobank, Deutsche Bank, Dow Capital International, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IFC, ING Bank, Kommunalbanken Norway, The Export-Import Bank of Korea, KfW Bankengruppe, Nordic Investment Bank, OCBC Bank, Swedish Export Credit Corp (SEK).
The decision to admit these 15 institutions is part of the government’s strategy to develop the domestic bond market by diversifying the bond products and expanding the foreign issuer and investor base.
The ministry of finance announced this new strategy in April 2006, and accepts applications to issue bonds from foreign institutions twice a year. The ministry then considers all the applications using various criteria such as credit rating, supply of public and private bonds, and liquidity in the domestic market.
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