Structure and Capital Market Tool
CGIF began guarantee operations in May 2012 and issued its first bond guarantee in 2013, focusing on companies that would struggle to access local bond markets without credit enhancement, particularly first-time issuers, smaller corporates, and companies operating in frontier bond markets. Backed by CGIF's AA international rating from S&P Global Ratings, its guarantees lift guaranteed bonds to investment-grade levels, opening the investor base to risk-averse institutions such as pension funds and insurers with minimum rating requirements.
CGIF had issued some 80 guarantees by the end of 2025, including bonds denominated in Singapore dollars, Vietnamese dong, Philippine peso, Japanese yen, Cambodian riel, Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Chinese yuan and Indonesian rupiah. The guaranteed bonds had average tenors of three to 10 years and were issued by corporations across sectors including telecommunications, healthcare, and automobiles.
Eighteen of these guarantees fall under the facility's sustainable portfolio. CGIF's guarantees have supported ESG public bond listings across the region. In Cambodia, its guarantee enabled SchneiTec Dynamic, the project company behind the country's first utility-scale solar-plus-storage plant, to issue a KHR 196.64 billion (approximately USD 49 million) 15-year green project bond. The bond was listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange in April 2025 and was the country's first-ever project bond. In Thailand, CGIF guaranteed a SGD 129 million (approximately USD 100 million) social bond for Muangthai Capital, the country's largest non-bank financial institution. It was listed on the Singapore Exchange in October 2025 as the first publicly offered Singapore-dollar social bond by a non-bank financial institution.
CGIF's sustainable portfolio is complemented by ADB's GSS+ Bonds Initiative, which provides advisory support for green, social, sustainability and other labelled (GSS+) bond transactions across Southeast Asia. Several issuers benefited from both CGIF guarantees and the GSS+ Bonds Initiative's support.
In 2021, for instance, Thaifoods Group, a Thai food and agriculture manufacturer, issued a THB 1 billion (approximately USD 30 million) social bond with ADB's support. The proceeds funded projects that support job creation and economic advancement in local communities. This became the first social bond issued by a non-financial corporate issuer under the ASEAN social bond standards and the first social bond guaranteed by CGIF. The bond was successfully placed with domestic institutional investors. CGIF followed this with two further issuances in 2022 and 2024.
In 2024, CGIF guaranteed the ASEAN shipping sector's first sustainability-linked bond (SLB) for Precious Shipping Public Company Limited, a THB 1,360 million (USD 40 million) issuance in two tranches of THB 680 million each with five- and ten-year maturities. The SLB's key performance indicator is the reduction of CO₂ emissions intensity per deadweight tonne transported. Its framework is verified by a second-party opinion against the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles and the ASEAN Sustainability-Linked Bond Standards. The ten-year tranche is notable in a market where non-rated corporates typically issue at two- to three-year tenors.
In both cases, the bonds were registered with the Thai Bond Market Association (ThaiBMA), which acts as a bond pricing agency providing model yield and pricing data while also supporting market infrastructure and transparency through bond registration, market information and pricing services. ThaiBMA has played an active role in developing Thailand's domestic ESG bond market. It runs an ESG Bond Issuance Grant Scheme with the Capital Market Development Fund, covering external review and credit rating fees up to THB 2 million per bond type, as well as regular seminars, workshops and capacity-building programmes with local and international partners.
Background and Market Context
The Credit Guarantee & Investment Facility (CGIF) is a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), established in 2010 by the ASEAN member states, the People's Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. CGIF is part of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) and aims to strengthen local currency and regional bond markets. It was established with initial paid-in capital of USD 700 million. As of December 2025, CGIF's paid-in capital had reached USD 1.158 billion.
CGIF provides credit guarantees on local-currency corporate bonds issued by creditworthy companies domiciled in ASEAN+3 countries, helping them access longer-term financing and reducing reliance on short-term foreign-currency debt. In doing so, it directly addresses the currency and maturity mismatches that have historically been a source of financial vulnerability in the region and contributes to the development of deeper, more liquid local currency bond markets as a foundation for sustained economic growth and financial resilience.
Development Impact
Illustrating a demand-side intervention, CGIF's guarantees enhance corporate bonds' credit ratings, providing issuing companies access to longer-term financing in local currency. This reduces their dependence on short-term foreign currency borrowing. The guarantees also support market development, enabling repeat issuances. Thaifoods Group's social bond debut in 2021 was followed by two further social bond series, consistent with the broader pattern reported by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand: roughly half of the ESG bond issuers supported under ADB's GSS+ Bonds Initiative were first-time issuers, and most have continued issuing subsequent series, sustaining the financing of sustainable projects beyond the initial supported transaction.
By guaranteeing first-of-its-kind instruments, such as the first CGIF social bond in 2021 or the ASEAN shipping sector's first SLB in 2024, the facility builds a track record for new labels in local currency markets, encouraging issuers and investors to follow.