marketsForeign borrowers are ploughing into once-niche Asia-Pacific bond markets, demonstrating that it’s not just Big Tech grabbing funding wherever it can in a world of rising uncertainty and record borrowing.
Germany’s Commerzbank (CBKG.DE), opens new tab, French utility Engie (ENGIE.PA), opens new tab, Persil-owner Henkel (HNKG.DE), opens new tab, Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), opens new tab and the Portuguese government have this year sold bonds denominated in Australian dollars and China’s onshore and offshore yuan for the first time.
In fact, “kangaroo” bond sales from foreign issuers in Australian dollars are at a record high of around A$60 billion ($42 billion) so far this year, up roughly 40% from 2025, LSEG data tracking internationally placed deals to late July shows. Hong Kong dollar issuance is also at a record high.
Chinese onshore “panda” and offshore “dim sum” yuan bond sales reached record highs of around 160 billion yuan ($24 billion) and 350 billion yuan respectively in the first half, rising more than 60% compared to this time last year, according to Goldman Sachs, with half of it coming from international borrowers.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where these markets have tipped over into being significantly more meaningful both to local names and inevitably to international names,” said Carla Goudge, head of debt syndicate, Asia-Pacific at HSBC.
“It’s an option that simply wasn’t available in such meaningful size on a regular basis a few years ago.”
Even bond sales in the yen, a more established funding currency, have doubled this year by foreign borrowers, according to LSEG. Google-parent Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab record bond sale has been a big driver but even without it they’re at a seven-year high.
The Asian rush is one way issuers are diversifying their funding sources as the AI investment boom and high government deficits boost borrowing needs across U.S. markets and beyond, bankers said.
Global international syndicated bond sales in 2026 reached a record above $4 trillion by late July, according to LSEG, from around $3.5 trillion in the same period last year.
“For most issuers that are issuing away from their core currencies, it’s often a function of larger funding programmes,” said Mizuho’s head of debt capital markets syndicate EMEA, Hampus Falth.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Borrowing in Asian currencies has expanded in recent years.
Bankers say that reflects a structural rise in demand, whether from Asia’s broader financial wealth boom or Australia’s fast-growing pension fund assets.
Growing issuance in China also stems from Beijing’s push to internationalise its currency, prompting it to broaden the investor base for the more common dim sum bonds and making it easier to sell panda bonds and use their proceeds.
“As markets grow they can build a bit of momentum because there are more people who are more familiar with it,” Christopher Kent, assistant governor at Australia’s central bank, told a Reuters NEXT event last week.
“More investors come here to pick up these bonds and more issuers think that this is a good place to issue, for various reasons, and so you get a bit of growth and the growth then begets more growth.”
It’s also a sign that investors are keen to diversify away from the U.S. dollar.
Asian investors and central banks who used to focus on U.S. dollar debt are now also turning to the Australian and Hong Kong dollars and even euros, Falth said, adding to the demand for the debt sales.
Source: Reuters