Asean

Australia and New Zealand Bank and Crédit Agricole have beefed up their respective Asian loans teams with new appointments.

BoC Aviation has notched up a new landmark for Asia by becoming the first issuer from the region to sell an aircraft leasing ABS. Market observers are buoyed by the landmark transaction and hope it will spur similar deals from Asia and particularly China, writes Rev Hui.

The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) is set to welcome only its third IPO since the bourse opened in 2012, as a state-owned port operator looks to list this month. While progress has been slow in its equity capital market, rising interest from foreign investors and a much-needed push from the government may turn the tide. John Loh reports.

The next stage of RMB internationalisation needs to focus on improving the connectivity between the onshore and offshore market to improve liquidity. This could be done encouraging more foreign entities to raise funds through Panda bonds and providing more offshore investment routes for onshore RMB, says Zhang Weiwu, general manager of ICBC Singapore, to GlobalRMB.

Indonesia Infrastructure Finance (IIF) has returned to the offshore loan market after more than a year for a $150m fundraising, which is backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Activity in Asia’s secondary loan market has picked up over the past few months as banks seek to manage their portfolios more efficiently. This is attracting intermediaries such as fixed income specialist SC Lowy, which has set up a par loan trading business in the region. But while there are opportunities, there are also plenty of challenges holding back growth in the nascent market, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Singapore and China have announced new initiatives to boost the internationalisation of renminbi (RMB) through the city-state.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is planning to end a one year hiatus from the international bond market, as it awaits approval to issue new notes in November.

DBS Bank is following in the footsteps of its peers with plans to launch a Panda bond this year, several sources have told GlobalRMB. The deal will not only be the bank’s debut in China’s onshore bond market, but also mark the first such trade from Singapore.

Crédit Agricole has appointed a new director to its loan origination team in Singapore, poaching the banker from IDFC Securities.

The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) is set to welcome the third IPO on its bourse, with state-owned Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) scheduled to price a $6.41m listing this month.

Metro Retail Stores Group started pre-marketing its Ps5.61bn ($119.90m) IPO on Monday, with joint global co-ordinators BPI Capital and Deutsche Bank expected to meet investors over the week.