Fresh signs of life in Asia debt markets Baidu has issued the first $1bn bond by a Chinese company in over two months, the latest sign of recovery in Asia's bruised debt markets. China's dominant internet search engine tapped US investors for only the second time on Tuesday after the close of US markets, raising $1bn in five-year bonds. Last November, the Nasdaq-listed company became the first Chinese borrower to sell bonds exclusively to traditional US credit investors when it raised $1.5bn of dollar debt. The newly issued bonds offer a coupon of 3.29 per cent, equivalent to a spread over similar-maturity US Treasuries of 190 basis points, up from around 160 basis points on its debut dollar bond. Baidu is only the second Chinese company to raise cash in the dollar bond market since late May, when comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on the outlook for US monetary policy sent global credit markets into a tailspin. The junk bond market in effect shut down in Asia for two months, while investment grade deal volume halved. A cash crunch in China in June, when onshore interbank lending rates spiked, has made it particularly difficult for mainland companies to tap offshore bond markets. No dim sum bond - renminbi debt issued outside China - has been sold in almost six weeks, the longest barren spell for the market. However, there are some signs that the market for Asian dollar debt is creaking back to life. Baidu's deal is the second Chinese bond issued this week, after Poly Real Estate sold $500m in five-year debt on Monday night. Analysts said the Baidu deal was fresh evidence deals were still possible in the current environment for the right company, but that overall volumes in Asia were likely to remain depressed, especially from Chinese corporate borrowers. Moody's gave Baidu's latest bonds a rating of A3, equivalent to a rating of A minus by S&P and Fitch. While Baidu said the decision to raise money was not directly related to its $1.9bn purchase this month of online gaming company 91 Wireless, Moody's said offshore funding would be a more "tax efficient" way to fund the purchase. Baidu said the bond proceeds would be used for "general corporate purposes." Negotiations over the 91 Wireless deal are due to conclude August 14, according to the original announcement from Baidu. Last week Baidu reported second-quarter revenues of $1.2bn, an increase of 38 per cent from a year earlier, and higher than most analysts had forecast.