The euro bond market has already shown what it can do for foreign borrowers but the the volatility of its dollar equivalent is alerting Asia-Pacific corporate issuers to its charms as a place to raise capital.
A decade ago US companies raisng Reverse Yankee bonds in euros were interesting but a sideshow. Last year however, volumes surged to a record of more than €87bn, about a quarter of total euro investment grade corporate supply, and were up roughly 50% on 2024, according to GlobalCapital’s Primary Market Monitor.
Over the course of Donald Trump's second stint as US president, investors, particularly in Apac, have rotated out of dollars to euros, and some of the reigon's investment grade companies are raising more capital in the currency too.
Asian companies raised almost €19bn of syndicated benchmark bond funding in 2025, up from €11.5bn in 2024 and €9.1bn in 2023, PMM showed. This year so far they have issued €4.4bn of the same. This week South Korean search engine Naver was looking to make a return to the market for the fist time since 2021 while Japan's SoftBank was lining up a debut deal.
That is still modest beside the volume of Reverse Yankee bonds. This year Apac corporate euro issuance is barely a tenth of Reverse Yankee volume of €45.7bn.
But the direction matters.
There is a case to say there is more to come too. The economics are favourable for Apac issuers. Even after swapping back to dollars, funding costs remain competitive, while dollar spreads and yields ahave widened.
The Iran war is just the lastest bit of Trump-induced volatility since he reoccupied the White House. Nonetheless, it has reminded Apac issuers what concentrated funding risk looks like and that they cannot rely on getting everything they need from the dollar market any longer.
Markets may rebound quickly, as they did after the two-week ceasefire announced on April 8, but confidence in the reliability of dollar funding and the stability of its bond market is taking longer to repair.
Apac borrowers, as Reverse Yankee issuers have done over the last couple of years, are finding the euro market offers enough depth and stability to prove a viable funding channel for the longer term.