Not surprisingly, some of the borrowers in the region come up year in and year out as favourite choices. Hutchison Whampoa always makes our list for the best borrower in Hong Kong. Similarly, DBS, Petronas and ICICI are always in the final cut.
But this year, we had a few close races. For example, in China we had a tie. In Indonesia Adaro edged out Indosat by one vote, in Singapore the difference between first and second place was also a single vote, and in Korea Kexim overtook Korea Development Bank by a mere two votes. In places where it was this close, we've listed the borrowers in second place as well.
While last year Cathay Financial Holding won in Taiwan, there simply were not enough votes this year to make a call for the best Taiwanese borrower.
Respondents once again resoundingly chose Hutchison Whampoa as the best corporate investment-grade borrower. But when it came to non-investment grade corporate borrowers, the race was tight with Indonesia's Adaro edging out China's Country Garden for first place by two votes. Indosat, another Indonesian, trailed behind Adaro by three votes.
On the financial institution front, DBS took first by four votes over Kexim.
For the second year in a row we asked which country is the most professional sovereign borrower, and once again the Philippines swept the award. Indeed, the country received nearly four times the number of votes of the second-place winner, Indonesia.
For more results of our fixed-income poll, please see days one and two of the results and also look out for the 2010 Bond Markets Guide supplement to our upcoming November issue of the magazine.
