Xtrakter, the fixed income market utility, has released figures highlighting a drop in asset backed new issuance of 44.6% for Q1 2008 against Q1 2007.
Asset backed new issuance accounted for 12.6% of total new issuance figures, compared to the previous 16.3% for Q1 2007, resulting in a decline of $68,343 million. Overall new issuance for Q1 declined by 28.2% resulting in a total figure of $672,920 million.
This clearly outlines a trend in moving away from asset backed new issuance and is in line with our expectations of the impact of the credit crunch. If the markets appetite for such offerings does not improve, we expect to see this figure decline further in Q2 2008, says Kevin Milne, CEO, Xtrakter.
The Euro was again the dominant currency of issue in Q1 2008, capturing 44.7% against the US Dollar which was chosen for 38.5% and Pounds Sterling was selected for 5.8% during the period. The following currency changes were also observed when comparing Q1 figures.
AED Arab Emirate Dirham rose by 596%, total of $1,992 million.
SEK Swedish Krona rose by 95%, total of $4,663 million.
RON Romanian Leu declined by 100%.
HKD Hong Kong Dollar declined by 66%, total of $441 million.
During Q1 2008 the international capital markets increased in total value to $11.6 trillion, in terms of outstanding debt, excluding private issuance. This resulted in a 5.8 % increase over the same period in 2007, resulting in overall 0.8% increase on total 2007 figures. Further analysis concluded the Euro represented 48%, US Dollar 33.7% and Pounds Sterling 10.7% of the total outstanding value for the period.