Hutchison Whampoa: winner takes it all

The diversified conglomerate returned to the dollar markets late on Monday with a deal whose timing and structure surprised everyone, but which nevertheless managed to appease investors and nudge the borrower's funding targets. For many observers Hutchison Whampoa's $1.5 billion 10-year 144a offering was almost a mirror image of a $750 million global bond for KDB last November. Both share a heavy underpinning of US investors attracted to the yield pick on a Treasuries basis and two borrowers that would have each felt they got good Libor-based pricing because of the steepness of the swap curve.