Today's holders include a handful of hedge funds, exotic-debt funds, offshore banks and debt collection agencies.
From the financial aspect, it could also be performed in the form of bilateral green aids or loans, such as the official or private holding of offshore green debts, the core fund contributions of NEASPEC, GEF (Global Environment Facility, UNEP United Nations Environment Programmeme) or other subregional environmental cooperation mechanisms backed with funds.
H.P. has confirmed that it will use "offshore cash" and debt financing to pay for the deal.
Asset managers would see this as another reason to trim their holdings of both offshore and domestic debt in such places, exacerbating the problem.
The relationship went beyond traditional loans to a variety of complicated financings, including futures contracts involving offshore companies and debt backed by Enron's receivables.
Through the end of March, Consulta was ranked top for five-year performance among the 49 offshore emerging-market debt funds tracked by Standard & Poor's Micropal.
Market jitters may be a hazard, but if the U.S. finds itself with government bonds and no buyers, it will no doubt resort to quantitative easing again, just as it has in the past -- not necessarily overtly, but by buying bonds through offshore entities, swapping government debt for agency debt, and other sleights of hand.
A judge in Cyprus is expected to rule this month in a clash over several offshore companies claiming debts against the Quinn properties of more than 500 million euros.
In the first half of 2011, Goldman Sachs was the best American performer in the rankings for Chinese debt raised offshore, ranking sixth with a 5.9 percent market share.
A 2006 study identified another way in which tax havens may reduce the costs of entering high-tax countries: the use of offshore affiliates to facilitate debt financing, which had been fuelling investment in Japan.
