By Fanny Liu
TAIPEI--AT&T Inc. (T) is selling up to US$1.5 billion of
bonds in Taiwan, one of its underwriters said Monday, as ample
liquidity continues to lure foreign debt issuers to the island.
The 30-year bond, the U.S. telecom giant's first in Taiwan, will
carry a coupon rate of 4.7%, said Yvonne Chu, a vice president at
Masterlink Securities Corp. She said the bond will be priced later
this week and listed on Taiwan's bond exchange Nov. 10.
Taiwan has seen a raft of foreign issuers, mostly banks, tap its
bond market since August. Most of them issued debt in U.S. dollars
or Chinese yuan.
A new rule in Taiwan, passed in May, allows insurers to exclude
foreign-currency denominated products from their overall overseas
investment cap, which has created fresh demand for foreign bonds,
analysts say. Chinese debt issuers are also being drawn to Taiwan
as its yuan deposits grow.
AT&T is the second non-financial foreign bond issuer in
Taiwan. The last first was Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), which
on Sept. 23 sold US$870 million of bonds at a yield of 4.80%.
More banks are expected to tap Taiwan's bond market toward
year-end, said Huang Bing-jing, deputy chief executive at Taiwan's
GreTai Securities Market, an over-the-counter bond exchange.
Write to Fanny Liu at fanny.liu@wsj.com
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