Archive for February 22nd, 2012
Nuclear operator returns to Japan bond market
Tohoku Electric Power is preparing to re-open the Japanese bond markets for nuclear power companies, a year after operators were frozen out by the Fukushima disaster.
The utility will offer bonds next month to raise funds for the restoration of power plants damaged in the March 11 disaster last year. Since then, Tohoku – along with eight of the other nine electric utilities serving Japan’s regions – has been shut out of public debt markets, unable to raise any finance except bank loans or short-term commercial paper, both at significant premiums to pre-crisis rates.
More
On this story
IN Capital Markets
Only Okinawa Electric, with no exposure to nuclear power, has tapped bond markets since the disaster. Kansai Electric and Kyushu Electric both started marketing bond offers in June last year but were forced to cancel after poor demand.
Bankers said it should be encouraging to other issuers that Tohoku, the utility most directly affected by the tsunami after Tokyo Electric Power, may be the first to show. It is expected to offer about Y25bn ($310m) of five- and 10-year bonds. “If the deal goes well, other utilities will look to come to market,” said Seiichiro Miyaoka, head of debt capital markets at UBS in Tokyo.
Market prices of existing bonds suggest that Tohoku will pay a spread of between 50 and 60 basis points over Japanese government bonds, or about four times the rate at which utilities borrowed before the Fukushima crisis. That is a reflection of the tough operating environment for Japan’s electric utilities, facing the indefinite suspension of nuclear power plants and a rise in costs caused by the purchase of alternative fuels. R&I, Japan’s biggest credit rating agency, has all 10 utilities on review for a downgrade.
Nonetheless, Tohoku will welcome the re-opening of a vital source of funding. It had been a frequent user of Japan’s public debt markets. Its Y1.18tn of bonds account for about 2 per cent of total corporate bonds outstanding. Together, the “epcos” accounted for 16 per cent of Japan’s corporate bond market at the end of September.
In their absence, credit spreads have been unusually tight, even for lesser-quality borrowers. A resumption of issuance in this area would lead to more rational pricing, “signifying the recovery of Japan’s credit markets from the earthquake”, said Akane Enatsu, a credit strategist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.
Since the Fukushima incident, Japanese utilities have idled indefinitely reactors that were shut down for routine maintenance. This has eliminated almost all nuclear power production in Japan, which had accounted for 30 per cent of the nation’s total electricity output. By May, when the remaining two plants are closed for maintenance, Japan may be without any nuclear capacity.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
View full post on Utilities company and industry news with expert analysis from the Financial Times
X-Rite to host color management webinar
X-Rite, a developer of color management, measurement and communication software, will present in a free webinar its expertise on new measurement standards, technologies and ways operations can enhance their businesses.
For two days the event, entitled ‘New color management standards in 2012 – How will you be impacted?’ will focus on ISO color and M1 measurement standards in pre-press and print. The issues surrounding optical brighteners in paper will also be detailed before a Q&A session at the end.
Targeted at pre-press professionals and commercial printers, the webinar will take place on March 1 and March 2 at 17.30 CET (16.30 GMT).
The first to register will be among the selected few to receive ‘The M Factor’, a white paper explaining how to successfully color manage papers with optical brighteners.
To register for the free event follow the links:
March 1, 2012 – 17:30 CET (16:30 GMT)
March 2, 2012 – 17:30 CET (16:30 GMT)
Click here for more stories about X-Rite on L&L.com.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
View full post on Labels and Labeling – the wider world of narrow web – Labels and Labeling
