KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Rating Corporation Bhd (MARC) expects gross newly-rated bonds/sukuk issuance volume to be in the range of RM50-60bil in 2015.
In a note on Thursday, it said together with newly-unrated government-guaranteed papers and unrated private placements of an expected RM3bil, MARC forecasts a total of RM80-90bil of new private debt securities issuances in 2015, almost unchanged from the RM85.9bil recorded in 2014.
MARC additionally foresees higher issuances from the unrated quasi-government segment to fund ongoing mega infrastructure-related projects initiated by the government, such as the construction of the Second Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 3 Project.
"MARC is confident that infrastructure financing will hold up in the year ahead, given that there was no reduction in development expenditure in the government’s recent review of Budget 2015," it said.
In 2014, MARC assigned 13 new ratings on new corporate debt programmes worth RM44.1bil, compared with 18 programme ratings worth RM36.7bil in 2013.
"Sukuk programmes once again formed the lion’s share of MARC’s assigned ratings, comprising approximately 75% of the total assigned value and 70% of the total number of ratings assigned," it noted.
It said noteworthy new debt programmes rated by MARC and issued in 2014 included TNB Western Energy Berhad’s RM3.655bil Islamic securities, Petronas Dagangan Berhad
’s RM2bil Sukuk Murabahah Islamic Commercial Papers and Islamic Medium Term Notes Programme, DRB-Hicom Berhad’s RM2bil Perpetual Sukuk Musharakah Programme, WCT Holdings Berhad’s RM1.5bil Sukuk Murabahah Programme and Northport (Malaysia) Bhd’s RM1.5bil Sukuk Musharakah Programme.
MARC had also announced the assignment of six new ratings on debt programmes totalling RM36.5 billion in 2014 which are pending issuance this year.
"Despite the removal of the mandatory rating requirement for tradeable bonds/sukuk from 2017 and the rising volume of unrated issuances during the last couple of years, MARC remains positive about the longer-term prospects for the credit rating industry," it said.
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