Foreign bonds and Eurobonds

Question

List some of the differences between the foreign bonds and Eurobonds and also describe why Eurobonds make up lion’s share of the international bond market.

Answer 1

Two segments of international bond market are:

a) Eurobonds and
b) Foreign bonds.

Foreign bond issues are the one that is provided by the foreign borrower to investors in the national capital market and is denominated in that nation’s currency.  Eurobond issue is one that is denominated in particular currency, however, sold to investors in the national capital markets other than the country that issues denominating currency.

Eurobonds make up over 80 percent of international bond market.  Two important causes for this arise from the fact that U.S. dollar is the currency that is frequently sought in the international bond financing.  Firstly, Eurodollar bonds is brought to the market more rapidly as compared to the Yankee bonds since they are not provided to the U.S. investors and therefore do not have to meet the strict SEC registration requirements.  Secondly, Eurobonds are bearer bonds which give anonymity to the owner and therefore provide the mode for evading the taxes over the interest received.  Due to this, investors are usually willing in order to accept the lower yield on Eurodollar bonds as compared to the registered Yankee bonds of comparable terms, where the ownership is recorded.  For borrowers, lower yield means a lower cost of debt service.