A recovery in the primary market for G3 bonds in Asia is shining the spotlight on Asset Benchmark Research’s ( ABR ) annual G3 Bond Benchmark Survey of the Most Astute Investors and the Best of the Sellside, which gets underway starting today.

The survey, the longest-running review of the who’s who in the G3 fixed income market and the institutions driving the region’s offshore capital markets, tracks the performance of the buyside and the services they receive from the sellside. These services include the quality of research, sales and trading, and what attributes matter the most.

Issuance of G3 bonds in Asia, outside of Japan and Australasia, in the first three months of 2025 surged by over 48% to US$92.8 billion compared with US$62.6 billion in the same period a year ago. A total of 163 issues were launched, according to data from LSEG, up from 104 deals during the comparable period of January to March 2024, a pick-up of nearly 57%.

In the ABR G3 Bond Benchmark Survey 2024, buyside houses in the asset manager category were led by BlackRock, which ranked in first place, followed by Pimco and Nomura Asset Management. Other ranked firms include Manulife Investment Management, First Sentier Investors, T Rowe Price and Pictet Asset Management.

In the private banks/wealth management segment, the top firms were Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management Asia, CMB Wealth Management and Ping An Wealth Management, which took first, second and third place, respectively.

The financial hubs Hong Kong and Singapore produced different sets of winners. In Hong Kong, asset managers on the buyside that were ranked include China Life Franklin Asset Management, followed by GaoTeng Global Asset Management and HSBC Asset Management. In Singapore, the winners were led by Schroders, which came in first, followed by Allianz Global Investors and Eightstone.

On the sellside, the houses ranked highly in research include Deutsche Bank, which came out on top, followed by Barclays and ANZ, which were ranked second and third, respectively. In the category of sales, ANZ topped last year’s survey; Deutsche Bank came second and Citi came in third. Other winners in the G3 sales ranking were Barclays and HSBC.

Most Astute Investors individuals that were recognized in the 2024 survey in the best in portfolio management Hong Kong ranking included Yolanda Ye, the head of fixed income and multi-asset at Zhong Ou Asset Management, and Richie Lyu, a portfolio manager at Zhong Ou Asset Management. In Singapore, the top ranked for this category was Smit Rastogi, an associate director at UBS Asset Management, followed by PJ Tan, a director at BlackRock.

On the sellside top economists/strategists ranking, Owen Gallimore, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, was ranked first, followed by Joyce Liang, the managing director at BofA Securities, and in third place was Ting Lu, the chief China strategist at Nomura. The top analysts were led by Chris Lu at BNP Paribas, Eric Liu at Nomura and Nicholas Yap, also at Nomura.

The 2025 ABR G3 Bond Benchmark Survey is likely to see buyside and sellside firms with a strong understanding of the most active markets in the region setting the pace. During the first quarter, China issuance volume was up by over 57% to US$23.1 billion with financial institutions and non-bank issuers, such as BoCom Financial Leasing, and Bank of China launching deals.

Issuers from South Korea maintained their activity with a total issuance of US$21.63 billion, a touch behind the total activity in China. Top issuers include Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Korea National Oil Corp.

Issuance of high-yield bonds was subdued during the first quarter of 2025, with only nine deals amounting to US$3.02 billion, up from eight deals valued at US$2.66 billion in the same period a year ago. India was on top of the league table with four deals amounting to US$1.67 billion, followed by China with two deals valued at US$650 million, Hong Kong with two deals amounting to US$352.25 million and Mongolia with one deal amounting to US$345.68 million.

Meanwhile, ESG-related bonds ( green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked and blue ) registered a lower issuance volume of US$13.60 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared with US$16.22 billion in the comparable period a year ago. China was the biggest issuer with US$6.73 billion, followed by South Korea with US$3.48 billion, the Philippines with US$2.38 billion and India, US$1 billion.

To see the full set of winners – individuals and institutions – in ABR’s 2024 G3 Bond Bondmark Survey, please download TheAsset App.

To participate in ABR’s 2025 G3 Bond Survey, please click here.