Privately placed bond sales surge in 2008 -mtn-i

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Global sales of privately placed corporate bonds have surged to more than $11 billion this year while public eurobond issuance has fallen, mtn-i said on Tuesday.

Corporate borrowers in 2008 raised in excess of $11 billion -- a 16 percent increase from the same period in 2007 -- from private medium-term-note (MTN) placements, the news and data provider said in a statement. By contrast, public eurobond sales dropped by more than 50 percent to $19.6 billion.

"Borrowers did not come back to the public market at the start of 2008, but have continued to find liquidity from private placement demand from investors who still have cash to put to work," mtn-i Chief Executive Office Mike Tims said in a statement.

Sovereign borrowers also increased their use of the private placement market, selling more than $24 billion of non-syndicated deals in 2008, up 12 percent from last year.

German carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and U.S. conglomerate General Electric (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) were the most active non-syndicated corporate borrowers, whilst German development banks NRW.Bank and KfW [KFW.UL] and the German state were active among sovereigns. (Reporting by Maya Thatcher, editing by Will Waterman)