Asean

Vietnam’s VNDirect Securities Corp has tapped the offshore loan market for the first time for a $50m borrowing.

Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, which tapped the loan market for a $7.2bn bridge loan last year to acquire retail giant Tesco’s Asia business, is now seeking covenant waivers on the fundraising. The move — which bankers say is triggered in part by CP’s plan to offload some of its newly-gained stake in Tesco — has hurt lenders’ confidence in the Thai conglomerate and raised questions around its strategy. Pan Yue reports.

Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust has raised S$335.8m ($253.05m) after pricing a placement of new units at the top of the marketed range.

Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust kicked off a one day follow-on offering of new stock on Monday, aiming to raise at least S$299.8m ($225.3m).

Indonesia's dollar bonds were among the top performing investment grade notes in Asia last week, buoyed by signs of the country’s recovery from the pandemic.

Singapore real estate investment trust Mapletree Industrial Trust has raised S$823.3m ($618.3m) from a sale of new units to fund data centre acquisitions, with the deal receiving a warm welcome from investors despite not being very well flagged.

Covered bonds issued this week by United Overseas Bank and Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark showed that, for the first time this year, sentiment has turned bearish and suggested that more careful consideration of pricing, timing and maturity is now required.

Indonesian multi-finance companies are continuing to favour club loans over syndicated deals, with Federal International Finance becoming the latest firm to use this route for its fundraising. Pan Yue reports.

Singapore Airlines is planning to raise S$6.2bn ($4.6bn) from a rights offering of mandatory convertible bonds.

Singapore has set up a new task force to give a fresh push to its green financing ambitions, rolling out initiatives and putting more focus on climate-related disclosures from financial institutions. Morgan Davis reports.

Freeport Indonesia is inviting banks to join the senior syndication stage of its $750m borrowing.

United Overseas Bank managed to extend its curve with €750m of eight year funding in the covered bond market on Tuesday at levels were well inside its previous blowout deal issued in November. However, bankers off the mandate gave the deal mixed reviews.