S-E Asian firms cut US$ debt to cushion against crisis

Hong Kong

SOUTH-EAST Asian companies are cutting US dollar bond offerings, reducing the risk that US currency appreciation driven by Federal Reserve interest rate increases will trigger the kind of runaway debt costs seen in the Asian financial crisis.

Firms cut US dollar bond sales 50 per cent in 2016 to a five-year low of US$7.9 billion, while raising issuance of local currency notes 14 per cent to the equivalent of US$30.5 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PcL offered last week to repurchase US$500 million of US currency notes. Bangkok's Skytrain operator BTS Group Holdings Pcl plans to raise up to 30 billion baht (S$1.2 billion) towards the end of the year.