The government debt consolidation process has allowed the cost of borrowing to decline markedly. Sound debt management has been such that new issuance is spread across the maturity spectrum of the yield curve. The bond market has become a more appealing corporate finance tool and, as such, corporate listings have become more popular.
Since the very first listing of a corporate bond (South African Breweries) in 1994, the corporate bond market has increased considerably in size. Innovation in this sector has been impressive – from issuance of vanilla bonds to securitisations and commercial paper.