Insight - Lure of junk bargains gives hope for Asia debt after loss

Global money managers, from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund to a former banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, are increasingly eyeing opportunities in Chinese developer debt.

MONEY managers are hunting for bargains among Chinese developer dollar bonds, which may help the broader Asian credit market in 2022 after it suffered record losses last year.

Asian dollar notes of all ratings lost 2.8% last year, their worst performance in a Bloomberg index going back more than a decade. That mainly resulted from a meltdown in Chinese property bonds, which account for a large part of the region’s junk notes. As that segment slumped, it weakened demand even for debt from healthier borrowers.