Eurobonds as Refugees From Tax Men Turn 50 in $4 Trillion Market
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Half a century ago, a London bond deal for an Italian highway operator, denominated in U.S. dollars and arranged by a U.K. bank founded by a Jew fleeing Germany spawned a $4 trillion-a-year global market.
Autostrade SpA, the manager of Italy’s freeway network, borrowed $15 million on July 1, 1963, through a new kind of international debt security, dubbed a Eurobond. Financiers led by Siegmund Warburg, founder of S.G. Warburg & Co., created the debenture so its interest payments were untaxed and in so doing gained access to pools of stagnant American dollars in Europe.