Hutchison Whampoa's tender offer for four of its outstanding bonds at the end of last week takes debt buybacks in Asia to a new level, giving buyers of investment-grade corporate bonds a chance to recoup their money early. Other high-grade companies have been buying back bonds on a smaller scale in the open market for liability management purposes, but Hutchison rated A-A3 is upping the ante by offering to buy outstanding bonds at a total cost of $1.5 billion, making this a true liquidity event for the bondholders.
So far, tenders have been used primarily by high-yield companies that were already in breach of covenants or needed to limit their future interest payments...
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