World Cup stokes emerging market bond sale frenzy

Emerging market borrowers from Brazil to the United Arab Emirates rushed to sell bonds this week before the World Cup kick-off takes some of the momentum from the best quarter of issuance in a year. The soccer tournament was “a global event for weeks and will attract attention and time from market participants”, Michael Ganske of Rogge Global Partners said yesterday. “It’s an additional factor impairing liquidity over the coming weeks. Issuers probably want to use the period before to tap the market as after the games, the summer lull kicks in.” Emerging nation bond sales reached $29 billion (R311bn) this week. Soccer is the favourite sport across many emerging markets and fans from Seoul to Santiago will devote their free time in the next five weeks to watching the quadrennial tournament, which started yesterday in Brazil. Twenty of the 32 national teams competing are from developing countries. “The World Cup and Olympics are especially and increasingly relevant to emerging markets,” said Richard Segal at Jefferies International. – Bloomberg