Corporate bond market to remain vibrant this year

The low deposit rates, currently at around 5-5.5 percent a year compared to 7 percent early last year, is likely to make bonds more attractive to investors with their coupon rates of 8-12 percent a year, according to a recent report by financial data service provider FiinGroup.

Bonds will continue to be a major instrument for mobilizing capital this year and upcoming years as banks focus on short-term lending while businesses’ demand for mid- and long-term lending remains large, it said.

"We believe that the corporate bond market will continue to be vibrant this year but is unlikely to exceed the scale reached last year."

Corporate bond issuance last year rose 28.3 percent to VND429.5 trillion, the report said.

This brings the value of the corporate bond market to 15.1 percent of GDP, higher than in the Philippines (8.9 percent) and Indonesia (2.8 percent).

Real estate companies remain the largest bond issuers with 38.5 percent of issuance value last year, followed by banks and other financial institutions at 31.6 percent.