Pretty darn good for a country that was considered a basket-case till a few years ago, and all the naysayers were shaking their heads and counting time till Pakistan declares bankruptcy. Though, naturally I wait for the day when instead of “best borrower award”, we receive the “best lender award”. Now, that will be so cool! 
**Pakistan gets best sovereign borrower award
**
The ‘EUROMONEY’, a monthly magazine published from UK, in its June edition appreciated the economic policies and reforms introduced by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz which it says, besides other things, have lead to Pakistan’s “re-emergence in the international capital market”.
An authoritative source of information on trends and development is international banking and capital market, the magazine in its June issue announced the Best Borrower Award to Pakistan.
Under Asia category, Pakistan has been conferred as “best sovereign borrower”.
The magazine has termed Pakistan’s Eurobond programme a " stunning success" to the extent that many investors" could not get enough of Pakistan’s Bonds" and the “pricing surpassed comparable offering from regular issuers”. The EUROMONEY attributes the success of the project mainly to the professionalism of Pakistan’s Finance Minister and his team and a very high level of international investor’s confidence generated by them.
The magazine says: “Nothing exemplifies the strength of the recovery in Asian emerging market debt better than Pakistan’s stunningly successful $500 million five -year Eurobond”.
In an article caption “Best Sovereign Borrower, Pakistan”, the magazine observe that due to Pakistan’s seven-year absence from the international capital market there were apprehensions about the success of the project. But it was amazing to see the offerings four times over subscribed.
Article adds that the Eurobond programme’s level of success should be judged in the backdrop of Pakistan’s turn around form a country on the brink of war with the neighbouring India, had exploded a nuclear device and was struggled to contain fundamentalists on both sides of its border with Afghanistan."
The article notes that Pakistan’s investors could not get enough of the Pakistan bond. Already a sizeable deal for such a credit at $500 million, the offering, the first by Pakistan for seven years, was four times oversubscribed.
It generated demand of $2 billion and this enabled joint book runners ABN Amro and Deutche Bank to price the deal tightly at an impressive 370 basis points over US treasuries. That pricing surpassed comparable offerings from regular issuers the Philippines and Turkey.
The magazine attributed to Navid Khan, head of ABN Amro in Pakistan, that the success of the programme was mainly due to the excellent presentation made by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and the central bank governor, which generated a high level of confidence in international investors.
The article attributes to Rahul Mukerjee, co-head Asia debt capital markets and corporate coverage group of Deutches Bank that the success of Eurobond was mainly due to turn around in Pak economy.
“Shaukat Aziz a professional finance minister and his team, their economic policies, selling (state) assets, interest rate policy and deficit control, have all worked well,” says Rahul Mukerjee.
The article further attributes to Navid Khan "It’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of what they are going to do, I think what they are looking at is incremental issues; they are looking at another deal by the end of the year.
They have been in a consolidation phase and they are now in a building phase. For that they will need more capital, but I do not think that they will be like Turkey or the Philippines."
The EUROMONEY is an authoritative source of information on the trends and developments in international banking and the capital markets. Each month, it chooses stories that matter, evaluates the facts and figures that make the difference and interviews those market players that influence the industry.
Source](Daily Jang: Urdu News - Latest Breaking News update Pakistan - jang.com.pk)