DebtRay was established in 2020 by Dr. Markus Walchshofer in response to the growing global fixed-income market. Over the past decade, the fixed-income market has become increasingly important in raising capital for companies worldwide, especially with the rise in corporate bond issuance due to low interest rates. Markus identified a lack of data and analytics tailored to the issuance process and saw the need for actionable issuance benchmark analytics. This unique problem is what DebtRay aims to solve.

While working in the CFO Office of a DAX40 company and overseeing the M&A function, Markus noticed the issuer's heavy reliance on underwriting banks during an issuance. He realized that there was a lack of peer-group benchmarks for issuance timing and pricing, leaving the issuer at a disadvantage. Each party involved in the issuance process - the issuer, underwriting banks, and investors - has its own objectives and interests. Markus observed that the issuer relied solely on the underwriting banks for pricing guidance, while the banks aimed to offer attractive pricing to investors and investors sought the best pricing for their returns.

This reliance on the middleman led Markus to question how to objectively evaluate price setting and leverage negotiation power.

Throughout his career, Markus repeatedly encountered the lack of objective evaluation for issuances. His experience as a credit portfolio manager in a leading asset management firm in Germany allowed him to create customized analytics to generate outperformance for his funds due to the opaque nature of the issuance process. Markus realized that there was no independent way for an issuer to evaluate the success of an issuance in terms of pricing and timing. This lack of objective evaluation led to information asymmetry for issuers, which could significantly impact a company's cash flow and market valuation.

After extensive discussions with practitioners and academics, Markus conceived the idea of using market data to analyze a bond's transition from the primary to the secondary market as a market-based signal to evaluate issuance performance. This led to the development of a capital market-based issuance benchmarking methodology!

Markus devoted his efforts to developing the benchmarking system based on academic research and leveraging market data and statistical methodologies, resulting in the creation of the BondRanking method. After thorough validation with peers and academics, the benefit of issuance benchmarking data became clear in providing transparency to issuers and investors.

Now, DebtRay is on a mission to empower issuers with purpose-built analytics, helping them improve pricing and timing, one issuance at a time!